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WASHINGTON 

THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 
A Visit to Our National Capitol 












CONDUCTED BT 

RUFUS ROCKWELL WILSON 

Author of *' Washington, the Capital City,^* 
''New York, Old and Nezv,^' etc. 

INTRODUCTION BT 
HON. GALUSHA A. GROW 

Ex- Speaker of Congress 




(See Pocket in Back Cover for Five Patent Mapi) 










UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD 

New York London 
Ottawa, Kansas Toronto, Canada 
San Francisco, California Bombay, India 











n^ 



LIBRARY ot OONSRESS 

TVm 0«Dl«s Recetv«4 

AUG 26 1904 

OovyrIrM Entry 

CLAW «-XXo.Na. 

' COPYB 



Wa^l^fftgt^fvmmr 



COPYRIGHT, 1904, 

Bt underwood & UNDERWOOD 

New York and London 

(entered at stationeus' hali-) 

Stereographs copyrighted in the United States and 
foreign countries 

MAP SYSTEM 
Patented in'.the United States, August 21, 1900 
Patented'in.'Great Britain, March ;^2, 1000 
Patente() ■in France, March 20, 1900. S.G.D.G. 
Switzerland, Patent Number 31,211 



All rights reserved 





CONTENTS. 

FA6B 

Introduction 7 

Author's Preface 9 

The Story of Washington 12 

How to See Washington through the Stereoscope . 34 



STANDPOINTS IN WASHINGTON. 

1 The Center of the Nation's life— Washington N. N. W. 

across E. branch of river to the Capitol, U. S. A . . 36 

2 Washington E. from Arlington, across the Potomac — the 

Monument, Capitol and Library in sight, U. S. A . 39 

3 From State Department S. over Executive Grounds, 

Monument and Potomac River, Washington, U. S. A . 40 

4 From Washington Monument N., the White House, 

Treasury and State Department, Washington, U. S. A. 44 

5 From Washington Monument S., along the Wharves and 

the Potomac River, Washington, U. S. A . . .46 

6 From Washington Monument N. E., past General Post 

Office and other Government Buildings, Washington, 

U. S. A 49 

7 From Washington Monument E., over Agricultural 

Grounds to the Capitol, Washington, U. S. A . .60 

8 United States Capitol from the N. E. — most beautiful 

building in America, Washington, U. S. A , . .66 

9 President McKinley delivering his Inaugural Address, 

March 4, 1897, Washington. U. S. A . . . .70 

10 The Supreme Moment : Chief Justice Fuller administer- 

ing the Oath to President McKinley, March 4, 1901 . 72 

11 A Touching Tribute to McKinley's Memory— Secretary 

Hay's Eulogy before Congress, Washington, U. S. A . 75 

12 Senate Chamber, U. S. Capitol, scene of some of the most 

famous debates in American history . . . .79 



4 CONTENTS 

PAOB 

13 Supreme Court Room in the Capitol — Chair of Chief 

Justice before arch; Washington, U. S. A . , .83 

14 The magnificent new Congressional Library — most 

spacious of book repositories — Washington, U. S. A . 88 

15 Decorative Splendors of the Entrance Hall of the Great 

Congressional Library, Washington, U. S. A . .91 

16 Grand Staircase, Library of Congress, Washington, D. 

C, U. S. A 91 

17 From the Dome of the Capitol W., down Pennsylvania 

Ave. to the Post Office and over the Mall, Washington, 

U. S. A 93 

18 The White House — the historic residence of the Nation's 

Chief — north front, Washington, U. S. A . . .96 

19 East Room, where Presidential Receptions are held 

(North toward front). White House, Washington, U. 

S. A . . . 101 

20 Dignified Beauty of the State Dining Room, in the White 

House (facing W. wall), Washington, U. S. A . . 104 

21 President Theodore Roosevelt in the Cabinet Room, 

White House, Washington, U. S. A . . . .106 

22 Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt at home in the White House, 

Washington, U. S. A 114 

23 Charming Northern Outlook over Lafayette Square, from 

the President's home, Washington, U. S. A . . .116 

24 Admiral Dewey and Officers of the Navy, New Year Re- 

ception, 1902, White House, Washington, U. S. A . 120 

25 State, War and Navy Building, where national business 

of vast importance goes on, Washington, U. S. A . 121 

26 Diplomatic Room, State Department — for conferences 

with representatives of Foreign Governments, Wash- 
ington, U. S. A 126 

27 Diplomats and Other Distinguished Guests at a Recep- 

tion — the White House, Washington, U. S. A . . 130 

28 From Navy Department S.E., past the White House and 

Treasury, to the Capitol, Washington, U. S. A . . 132 

29 Pennsylvania Avenue from the Treasury S.E., to the 

United States Capitol, Washington, D. C . . . 133 

30 U. S. Treasury Building (S. front) guarding millions 

upon millions in coin and notes, Washington, U. S. A. 134 

81 Fruits of the Sunny South and their buyers in famous 

old Centre Market, Washington, U. S. A . . . 144 

32 U. S. Patent Office where fortunes have been secured to 

inventors, Washington, U. S. A . , . . . 146 



CONTENTS 

FAOB 

33 Massachusetts Avenue (W. from Thomas Circle) favorite 

center of fashionable society, Washington, U. S. A . 151 

34 Homes of the most distinguished residents, Massachusetts 

Avenue (W. from Scott Circle), Washington, U. S. A . 153 

35 Peace and sunshine at the Soldier's Home for war-worn 

veterans, Washington, U. S. A 158 

36 Inspiring outlook from the President's south windows to 

the lofty monument, Washington, U. S. A . . .160 



IN THE ENVIRONS OF WASHINGTON. 

(a) General Robert E. Lee's old home, Arlington, Va . . 161 

(b) National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., U. S. A . . . 162 

(c) Ravine at Bladensburg, Md., famed for fatal duels, near 

scene of British victory, 1814 163 

(d) Christ Church, where Washington joined with his 

neighbors in public worship, Alexandria, Va . .166 

(e) Home of Washington, preserved in memory of the Re- 

public's founder. Mount Vernon, Va . . . .167 

(f) Tomb of America's greatest citizen, Washington, at 

Mount Vernon, Va 170 



MAPS. 

/ All bound in Booklet at the end of this Volume. 

y 1 Washington and vicinity. 

2 Washington, giving also sketch map of the United States in 

one corner. 

V 

3 Floor Plan of the principal story of the Capitol, 
yr 4 The White House and vicinity. 



INTRODUCTION 

I have derived both profit and enjoyment from 
" Washington Through the Stereoscope/' and I shall 
keep it conveniently at hand for constant use and 
reference. I have long been aware that stereo- 
graphs, properly used, give the same impressions, 
convey the same ideas and awaken the same emo- 
tions that would come to one in the presence of actual 
places; but never have I found this so strikingly 
true as in the case of Washington. With the ad- 
mirably devised ma]3S to show me exactly where I 
take each standpoint, the direction in which I am 
looking, and the distance over which my eyes are 
ranging, and with Mr. Wilson's accurate and ade- 
quate comments as I stand in one place after an- 
other, I find I am able to visit Washington and recall 
a thousand moving and inspiring associations without 
leaving my own library. 

For these reasons I believe " Washington Through 
the Stereoscope " has a wide and permanent field of 
usefulness. A more stimulating and quickening aid 
to education cannot be placed in the hands of the 
people, especially of our youth. It should have a 
place in every school where attention is given to our 
national history. That history for more than a hun- 
dred years has had Washington for its brain and 
heart; and this truth comes home to one with com- 



INTRODUCTION 



pelling force when lie makes his first visit to the 
Capitol. Such a visit, however brief, is a remarkable 
stimulus to patriotism and good citizenship. My own 
first visit to Washington remains, after the lapse of 
more than three score years, one of the most memor- 
able experiences in my whole life, for from it dated 
a new and far deeper interest in our country's past, 
and a firmer faith and a warmer pride in its future. 
What the sight of Washington did for me I know 
it can do for others. If then actual bodily presence 
on this historic ground is for any reason impractic- 
able, it is now entirely possible for anybody to at- 
tain for himself the most essential experiences of 
such a trip by the use of " Washington Through the 
Stereoscope." Such an opportunity is something 
better than gold, and my earnest hope is that, arous- 
ing as it does a vital interest in our national affairs, 
it will find its way into every community and be used 
in every school and household in our land. 

Galusha a. Grow. 



AUTHOE'S PREFACE 

The making of this book has been for the writer an 
educational process; it has also been one of the most 
delightful and instructive experiences of his life, — and 
all because it has taught him for the first time the true 
nature of the experiences one may gain l)y the right use 
of stereoscopic photographs. From boyhood he had ad- 
mired the stereograph, but only with a hazy and faulty 
comprehension of the scientific principles upon which 
it was based, and without any clear idea of the qualities 
which separate and place it above all other forms of 
illustration. The writing of this book, and the study 
and observation involved in the task, however, have 
proved to him that by the use of stereographs under 
proper conditions it is not only possible but easy for 
one without leaving his own fireside to obtain the essen- 
tial things which come to one in actual travel. 

The making of this book has taught the writer that 
there is a right and a wrong way to use the stereo- 
graph. The wise traveller when visiting a new country 
or city makes a mental or written list of the places it 
is most worth his while to see, and then calls to his aid 
the map and the guide-book; and it is only by availing 
himself of the same methods and aids that one is able 
to realize the full possibilities of stereographs — to use 
them in the best way and with the largest measure of 
profit. This thought has governed the preparation of 
"Washington Through the Stereoscope," and no labor 
has been spared to attain the end had in mind. 

There are four divisions, each essential to the other, 
to this Stereoscopic Tour of Washington: 



10 author's preface 

We have, first, forty-two stereoscopic photographs 
which make it possible for us to stand in the same 
number of important places in and about Washington, 
so chosen that making use of all of them we are enabled 
to obtain an accurate and comprehensive conception of 
the city as a whole, and a first-hand and satisfying 
knowledge of the buildings and objects of interest whicB 
render it dear to every American. 

We have, in the second place, the remarkably ingen- 
ious patent maps, which will be found inserted in a 
pocket in the back of the cover, by means of which one 
can obtain at a glance the point and the extent of vision 
in each stereograph, and with them the relation of each 
scene to every other one and to the whole city. The con- 
stant use of these maps is a matter of cardinal import- 
ance, for by it we are enabled to secure in each instance 
as vivid a sense of location as though we stood in reality 
on the spot. 

In the third place, there is " The Story of Washing- 
ton," to be found in the first part of this book, in which 
effort is made to trace in a clear and entertaining way 
the rise of the city from a wilderness hamlet to one of 
the most beautiful capitals of the world. 

Fourth and finally, in the body of the book the forty- 
two stereoscopic scenes are treated in regular order, and 
in such a manner that the reader is enabled to gain 
experiences at every stage of his progress of actually 
touring the capital under the direction of a competent 
and inspiring guide. Thus, in this fourfold way is it 
made possible to obtain in one's own home an intimate 
personal acquaintance with the Washington of to-day 
and of the past — a past which makes it a part of the 
pround and precious heritage of every patriot. 

In conclusion the writer would emphasize what has 



AUTHOR S PREFACE 



11 



already been implied that in these forty-two scenes in 
and about WasMngton we have not ordinary photograph 
prints, but, aided by the stereoscope, life-size repre- 
sentations, accurate in detail and proportion, of what 
would greet our vision if we stood on the spot. We 
look not on, but through the stereograph as we would 
through a window, and so we are affected and inspired 
by them in much the same measure as we would be by 
the realities which they represent. Anyone failing to 
understand or doubting these statements should write 
to the publishers for furtlier literature on the subject. 

Moreover, while it may be possible to stand but once 
in a lifetime in some cherished and storied spot, the 
stereograph makes it easy to return to the scene again 
and again, always with tlie certainty that there awaits 
us a fresh store of delightful and uplifting sensations. 
For those who have had the privilege of visiting Wash- 
ington, therefore, " Washington Through the Stereo- 
scope " gives the possibility of repeating this trip at 
will, while for the thousands who are unable to make 
the visit in a body, it is the only means by which they 
may gain experiences of actual presence in our national 
capital. As one psychologist has put it, 

" The essential thing for us is not that we have the 
actual physical place or object before us, as a tourist 
does, rather than a picture, but that we have some 
at least of the same facts of consciousness, ideas and 
emotions, in the presence of the picture, that the tourist 
gains in the presence of the scene. This is entirely 
possible in the stereoscope." 

EUFUS EOCKWELL WiLSON. 

New York, April, 1904. 



THE STORY OF WASHINGTON. 

The chief benefit to be derived from a visit to Wash- 
ington is the realizing sense it gives one of the series of 
great events of which it has been the centre. When one 
stands before the spot or building where any of these 
events occurred, the event itself takes a more vivid shape 
in his mind, and he is brought in living touch with those 
who were actors in it. These facts render it best that 
this story of Washington, to be used with " Washington 
Through the Stereoscope,"' should be made to hang 
upon a certain section of the city as we stand before it 
in one of these stereographs. 

But first let us get the bird's-eye view of the city 
afforded by the large general map of Washington in 
the back of this book. Spreading this map out before 
us, we find the federal city bounded on the south by 
the Potomac Eiver and its tributary the Anacosta, 
which here meet and form a huge crescent, flanked on 
its western shore by the hills of Virginia. In the centre 
of the left-hand portion of the map we find ancient 
Georgetown, and north of it the Naval Observatory 
and the Zoological Park. The twin island set down in 
the southward sweep of the Potomac bears the name 
of Analostan. Arlington National Cemetery overlooks 
this island from the Virginia shore, and directly east 
of its northern end, only a few inches '^n the map, but 
really more than a mile away, is the VVliite House or 
Executive Mansion, flanked on either hand by the State, 
War and Navy, and the Treasury Buildings. Half a 
mile south of the White House we find the Washington 
Monument, and a little less than a mile and a half to 
the east of that tall pile, with the Agricultural Depart- 
ment, the Smithsonian Institute and the National and 
Medical Museums between, rises the Capitol, with the 
Congressional Library beyond it. Another mile to the 



THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 13 

South and west of the Capitol, and fronting the water, 
we find the Arsenal and Barraclvs, and east of these, 
also on the water front, are the Navy Yard and the 
Congressional Cemetery. Near the centre of the upper 
portion of the map, two miles north of the Capitol, 
we find the Howard University, and a little to the 
northeast of tliat, outside the northern limits of the 
map, the Soldiers' Home and the Catholic University 
of America. 

A CAPITAL BUILT TO ORDER. 

Now turn your attention to the Washington Monu- 
ment and note particularly the two red lines which, 
starting from the Monument, branch out toward the 
north. At the end of each of these lines in the map 
margin we find the number 4. We are to take our 
position now on the Washington Monument, and look 
north over tlie territory lying between those two lines. 

Let us place stereograph No. 4, " From Washington 
Monument (N.), the White House, Treasury, and State 
Department/' in the stereoscope and bring the stereo- 
scope to our eyes. 

This is Washington. We are standing on the top of 
the Washington Monument looking north. We are in 
our National Capital. The Potomac is behind us and 
to our left, Georgetown is in front of us and to our 
left, and to our right the Capitol. All these are hidden 
from view, but before us, spread out at our feet, is the 
White House, guarded on the west by the mammoth 
State, War and Navy Building and on the east by the 
Treasury Building. Could we have stood here less than 
six score years ago how different would have been this 
scene before us. Then we should have seen down here at 
our feet nothing but lowlands covered with underbrusli 
or alder; farther away wooded slopes partly tilled by a 
few farmers, and in the distant hilltops thickly sprin- 
kled with scrub oaks. Thus, as you think of the changes 
wrought by the years you will not be surprised to learn 
tliat this City of Washington, like St. Petersburg, is a 
city built to order. The selection of a site for a per- 
manent capital fell to the First Congress, then sitting in 



14 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

New York, and in July, 1790, an act was passed and ap- 
proved which gave to President Washington the sole 
power to select a site, not exceeding ten miles square, on 
the Eiver Potomac, " for the permanent seat of the gov- 
ernment of the United States." The site chosen by 
Washington, in accordance with this act, included, be- 
sides the village of Georgetown in Maryland, a portion 
of Virginia with the town of Alexandria. Maryland and 
Virginia duly transferred to the United States the 
territory required, but in 184G that portion of the 
district lying to the west of the Potomac was retroceded 
by Congress to Virginia, so that now the federal ter- 
ritory comprises sixty-four square miles, bounded on 
three sides by Maryland and on the fourth by the Po- 
tomac. (See Map No. 1.) 

This site on which the present city is built, covering 
the lower portion of the district, had been familiar to 
Washington from his boyhood, and he had long cher- 
ished the idea of a great commercial city here, with 
the navigable Potomac, reaching to the sea, to help it 
in the race for supremacy. We can, therefore, readily 
believe that it was with more than his usual zeal and 
hopefulness that, early in 1791, little more than a 
century ago, he came here and set about the work of 
transforming this isolated tract of farm land into a 
centre of legislation for half a continent. The private 
owners of the land, after some delay, joined in an 
agreement to convey to the government, out of their 
farms, all the lands needed for streets, avenues, and 
public reservations, free of cost. They also agreed to 
sell the land needed for public buildings and improve- 
ments for $125 an acre. All tlie rest the government 
divided into building lots and apportioned between itself 
and the owners. The small lots were to be sold by the 
government, and from the proceeds payment made for 
the large ones. Thus, without advancing a dollar, and 
at a total cost of $36,000, the government acquired 
a tract here of six hundred acres in the heart of the 
city w*hich now represents a value of seventy million 
dollars. This bargain, if no other, proves Washington 
a shrewd man of affairs. 



THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 15 



THE DESIGNER OF WASHINGTON. 

His next step was to select three commissioners to 
have entire charge of the surveying and laying out of 
this whole district and the erection of the necessary 
public buildings. Daniel Carroll and Thomas Johnson, 
of Maryland, and David Stuart, of Virginia, were named 
as such commissioners, and on April 15, 1791, laid the 
first boundary stone of the District at Jones's Point 
(see Map Xo. 1), on the Virginia side of the Potomac. 
Meantime, Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant, a skilful 
military engineer, who had come to America in the train 
of Lafayette, had been selected by Washington to* draw 
the plan of " the new federal town," to which, about 
the same time, Carroll and his associates decided to 
give the name of Washington — this without the knowl- 
edge of the President, but with the hearty approval 
of Congress and the people. 

Major L'Enfant devoted the spring and summer of 
1791 to elaborating his plans for the projected city. 
He had to contend with current ideas of art and gov- 
ernmental expenditure that were provincial and narrow 
to the last degree, but this handicap, and it was a seri- 
ous one, did not prevent him from rising to the full 
possibilities of his task. Thus, he planned not for 
thirteen States and three millions of people, but for a 
republic of fifty States and five hundred millions; not 
for a single century, but for a thousand years. Some 
of those to whose opinions he was compelled to give 
heed wanted the city laid out in a regularity of squares, 
with all the streets intersecting at right angles. L'En- 
fant made the chessboard squares demanded of him^ 
but he also, as we can see, put in so many avenues 
running at acute angles, that the monotonous efi'ect 
was happily destroyed, and a way left open to make 
the capital the magnificent city it has since become. 
This compromise efl^ected, L'Enfant fixed upon a broad 
plateau in the eastern section as a site for the Capitol, 
and then located the other buildings in the section that 
lies at our feet — an arrangement desired by Washing- 
ton, who, it is interesting to know, held to the opinion 



16 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

that if Congress and the Executive officers were located 
close together, the latter would be so annoyed by the 
former that they would have to take their business 
home in order to keep up with it. 

The first ceremony having to do with the White 
House occurred on October 13, 1793. A company 
gathered out there and laid the cornerstone. The 
cornerstone of the north wing of the Capitol was laid 
on September 18, 1793, but, such was the poverty and 
economy of the time, needed funds were secured only 
when the Commissioners of the District had added their 
individual guarantee to that of the government. After 
that, work on the Capitol and White House made fair 
progress; two other public buildings were begun and 
pushed towards completion. One of these, known a§ 
the Treasury Department Building, occupied a portion 
of the site we now see covered by the present Treasury 
Building, while the War Office, as the other building 
was called, occupied the site where to the left of the 
White House we see the present State, War and Navy 
Building. Building a capital to order, nevertheless, 
proved a slow and difficult task for the infant nation, 
and when, in 1799, Washington last beheld the city that 
lies before us it was a straggling settlement in the woods, 
almost wholly devoid of streets, with thirty or forty 
residences, — these, for the most part, small and un- 
comfortable, — an unfinished Capitol and President's 
house. 

New York was the first federal capital, and remained 
so for little more than a year — 1789-1790. After that 
Philadelphia was for ten years the seat of government. 
The removal of the capital from Philadelphia to Wash- 
ington occurred in May, 1800, and in November of the 
same year John Adams, second President of the repub- 
lic, and his wife, the famous Abigail Adams, took up 
their residence down there in the White House, which 
looked then very much as it does now. They gave their 
first public reception on New Year's Day, 1801, and, 
despite the social poverty and material discomfort of 
the infant city, the guests which then assembled over 
yonder in the White House included more than a score 



THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 17 

of men of intellect and renown. Among tliem was John 
Marshall, Secretary of State in the cabinet of Adams, 
and soon to become the greatest of our Chief Justices; 
Samuel Dexter, Secretary of War and one of the really 
great constitutional lawyers of his day; and Attorney- 
General Thcophilus Parsons, no less famous for his 
acrid wit than for his extraordinary attainments as 
a scholar and jurist. Thomas Jefferson was then Vice- 
President, and among the Senators over whose delibera- 
tions he presided, and who came with him on that day 
to pay their respects to the President and his lady, 
were Jonathan Mason, Gouverneur Morris, Charles 
Pinckney, and brave and brainful John Eager Howard, 
who at the battle of Cowpens had led the desperate 
bayonet charge which assured a patriot victory. The 
House must also have had brilliant representation at 
this first White House reception, for dignified and ele- 
gant Theodore Sedgwick was then its Speaker, while 
its membership included the venerable General Thomas 
Sumter, Harrison Gray Otis, Edward Livingston, Albert 
Gallatin, James A. Bayard and John Randolph, now in 
the first year of his quarter-century of Congressional 
service, but already noted for his poetic eloquence and 
dreaded for his scathing wit. 

PRESIDENT JEFFERSON AND THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 

In March, 1801, Jefferson succeeded Adams as Presi- 
dent, and, being re-elected, resided over there in the 
White House for eight years. The Louisiana Pur- 
chase, which doubled the area of the United States, 
remains the great measure of his Administration, but 
it was a period of rapid and uninterrupted national 
growth. The city before us during those years grew to 
be a town of 5,000 inhabitants. The President showed 
keen interest in its future, and did much to improve 
it, causing Pennsylvania Avenue (which we see flank- 
ing the south front of the Treasury Building) to be 
opened and planted with trees, and also hastening the 
completion of the White House and the enlargement 
of the Capitol, Four Congresses ran their course while 
Jefferson was President, and each of them brought bril- 



18 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

liant accessions to the Senate and the House. Among 
the new members of the former body were John Quincy 
Adams, De Witt Clinton, James A. Bayard, William 
H. Crawford and Henry Clay, who, in 1806, was sent 
here by Kentucky to serve out an unexpired term, 
being chosen, in 1809, to complete another term of 
two years. He was then a young man of thirty, but 
already fairly started upon the career which gave him 
quick supremacy and kept him long in the public eye. 
During the next forty years Clay, besides serving in 
the Senate, was five times Speaker of the House, held 
the portfolio of State, rendered eminent service as a 
diplomat, and was thrice nominated for the Presi- 
dency. Aaron Burr served as Vice-President during 
Jefferson's first term, and from 1805 to 1812 that office 
was held by George Clinton. Jefferson's cabinet, with 
two exceptions, was made up of respectable and now 
forgotten mediocrities. The exceptions were Albert 
Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, and James Madi- 
son, Secretary of State. 

PRESIDENT MADISON AND THE SECOND WAR WITH 
ENGLAND. 

Madison from the first stood out as the logical suc- 
cessor to the Presidency, and could we have stood on 
March 4, 1809, where we are now standing we should 
have seen a great multitude thronging the White House 
grounds to pay their respects to the new Chief Ex- 
ecutive and his wife, the renowned and beloved Dolly 
Madison, the daughter of sober Quaker parents, who 
had found her an equally sober Quaker husband, this 
before, a widow just turned twenty, she became the 
wife of Madison. Nature, however, had amply endowed 
her for the position she was to fill. She had tact, 
frankness and a noble nature, and these, with a tenacious 
memory that never lost a name, won her the love of 
every class of people. Until her dying day, and she 
lived long, she was Washington's society heroine. 

Washington Irving spent the winter of 1811 here, 
and over Pennsylvania Avenue, which we can see stretch- 
ing westward from the north front of the State, 



THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 



19 



War and Navy Building, came more than once from 
Georgetown to attend the White House receptions. 

" Mrs. Madison," he wrote, in one of his letters, " is 
a fine, portly, buxom dame, who has a smile and a pleas- 
ant word for everybody . . . but as for Jemmy 
Madison, — ah ! poor Jemmy ! — he is but a withered little 
apple-John." Among the men with whom Irving must 
often have touched elbows at Mrs. Madison's " at 
homes " were Joseph Story, of Massachusetts, who 
served on the bench of the Supreme Court from 1811 
to 1813, and during that time stood second only to 
Marshall as an interpreter of the Constitution; Sena- 
tor Eufus King, of New York, who always appeared 
clad in eighteenth century dress, — satin coat and waist- 
coat, knee breeches, silken hose, and low shoes; and 
John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, who entered the 
House in 1811 to speedily become a leader in national 
affairs. Calhoun sat in the House until 1817, and then 
for seven years was Secretary of War under Monroe. 
In 1831 he resigned the Vice-Presidency, to which he 
had been twice elected, to enter the Senate, and ten 
years later became Secretary of State in Tyler's cabinet. 
During the remainder of his days he was again a 
Senator. 

The second war with England, due to British aggres- 
sions on American commerce, was the chief event of 
Madison's Administration. Acting under the mandate 
of Congress, Madison, from his office in the upper story 
of the White House, — the southwest room whose win- 
dows peer at us above the trees, — issued a formal dec- 
laration of war on June 18, 1812. The nation, however, 
was ill-prepared to cope with a formidable enemy. 
Though there was soon a long list of brilliant victories 
achieved at sea, the record of land operations was one 
of almost unbroken disaster, and when in 1814, the 
British ministry offered to negotiate for peace, the offer 
was at once accepted, and five commissioners were ap- 
pointed to meet England's representatives at Ghent. 

Meanwhile, in August, 1814, a British fleet entered 
the Chesapeake, and 4,500 soldiers and marines effected 
a landing on the Potomac, forty miles below where we 



20 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

are standing. No attempt was made to check the ad- 
vance of the British until on August 34: they had 
passed east of the city and reached Bladensburg. There 
battle was given them by 5,000 militiamen and 900 
regulars under General William H. Winder, but the 
militia fled at the first fire, nor could their officers 
again rally them to the attack. Thus left unsupported, 
the American regulars were quickly overpowered, and 
the British continued their advance upon Washington 
without further check or hindrance. They entered the 
city in the evening over the hills we see off to the right, 
and making their way southward applied the torch to 
the Capitol. An hour later only the walls were left of 
the beautiful structure that had been half a lifetime 
in building. 

After this the invaders came on here to the White 
House, which they found unoccupied, for the President 
and his wife, along with the members of the Cabinet 
and a large part of the populace had already fled the 
city. Disappointed in the hope of capturing the Presi- 
dent, they fired the mansion we now see bathed in 
sunshine, and the Treasury Building beside it, and then, 
marching away across the mall at our feet, went into 
camp for the night on Capitol Hill. The following 
day the work of destruction was resumed, and nothing 
was spared that could be considered public property 
or put to public use. But, while this fell work was 
still in progress, rumors spread through the British 
camp that an army 12,000 strong was on the way from 
Virginia to recapture the city. Orders to retire were 
accordingly given, and, being still unopposed, the enemy 
regained their ships on August 29, but not before they 
had written one of the darkest pages in our national 
history. 

President Madison, who had been hiding in Virginia, 
returned on the morrow of the departure of the British, 
and for the time being took up his residence in a house 
which still stands at the corner of New York Avenue 
and Eighteenth Street, directly west of the mall spread 
out at our feet. It was in that house that on Feb- 
ruary 18, 1815, he signed the proclamation of the Treaty 



THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 31 

of Ghent, which ended the war with England, and had, 
in fact, been in the process of making when Washing- 
ton was laid waste by the foe. Two years later Madi- 
son's second term as President came to an end. He was 
succeeded by James Monroe, whose eight years in the 
White House, which with the Capitol had been 
promptly rebuilt, lives in history as the Era of Good 
Feeling. 

This period witnessed the passage by Congress of 
what was known as the Missouri Compromise, — an 
act providing that slavery should not exist north of 
the southern boundary line of Missouri, and it brought 
here two statesmen of great and enduring renown — 
J)aniiel Webster and Thomas H. Benton. Webster 
entered the House in 1813, and in 1827 was elected to 
the seat in the Senate, which he held until 1841; he 
became Secretary of State in Harrison's cabinet, con- 
tinuing in that office under Tyler until his resignation 
in May, 1843. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1845, 
Imt left it at the end of five years to become Fillmore's 
Secretary of State, which post he held until his death 
in the early autumn of 1852. His was the master mind 
of his era, and he lacked but a stronger character to 
have become the greatest name in our political history. 
Benton entered the Senate from Missouri in 1820, and 
he remained for thirty years a member of that body. 
His great ability made him from the first an important 
factor in the affairs of the Senate, and, with rigid devo- 
tion to principle, won for him, as time went on, a 
measure of popular confidence that the more brilliant 
but vacillating talents of a Clay, a Callioun, or a Web- 
ster could not command. 

THE KEIGN OF ANDREW JACKSON. 

After Monroe, John Quincy Adams served a single 
term as President, and then came the two terms of the 
masterful man whose period of service has come to be 
known as the Eeign of Andrew Jackson. Could we 
have joined the crowd which thronged the mall below us 
on March 4, 1829, and jostled one another in their eager- 
ness to grasp the hand of the new President, we should 



22 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

have beheld in the object of their regard a figure tall, 
spare, erect and commanding, with features worn and 
seamed but fixed and strong; steady, deep-set, piercing 
eyes shadowed by shaggy brows, and lips which, save 
in their kindlier moods, had always a firm and defiant 
expression, a shock of bristling white hair, lending an 
appropriate crown to a bearing and individuality no 
stranger could meet without startling recognition. 

With a single exception, the issues which made Jack- 
son's eight 3'ears in the White House a period of tur- 
moil and continuing battle have little interest for men 
of a later time, but the fact remains that the frontier 
planter, lawyer and soldier, who dwelt during the greater 
part of his life in comparative obscurity, was one of 
those masterful figures who appear in high places only 
once or twice in a century. When Hayne, of South 
Carolina, angered by a tariff act which bore heavily 
on the agricultural South, declared in the Senate 
that a State could refuse assent to any act of Con- 
gress that she might deem unconstitutional or inim- 
ical to her interest, and Webster replied to him in the 
master-speech of his life, the latter's demonstration 
that nullification would destroy the Union found its 
strongest champion in Jackson. With Jackson to think 
was to act, and, when in November, 1833, a State con- 
vention in South Carolina passed an ordinance nulli- 
fying existing tariff laws, and prohibiting the payment 
of any dues under them, the President at once took 
up the gauntlet of defiance thus thrown down. He sent 
General Scott to take command at Charleston, with 
troops nearby and gunboats at hand, and issued a proc- 
lamation declaring the act of South Carolina contradic- 
tory to the Constitution and destructive of its aims. 
Then Clay stepped into the breach, and introduced a 
Congress bill revising the tariff, which was accepted by 
the nullifiers, and became a law, known as the Com- 
promise of 1833. The South Carolina Convention, 
without delay, rescinded the nullification ordinance; 
and thus the struggle of sections was put off for a gen- 
eration. But how acute was the crisis averted by Clay 
is revealed in one of Jackson's last recorded utterances. 



THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 23 

A friend asked him what he would have done with 
the South Carolina leaders had they persisted in their 
defiance of the Government. " Hanged them, sir, as 
high as Haman," said the dying man with eyes aflame. 
" They should have been a terror to traitors for all time." 
Not only was Jackson strong enough with the people 
to secure his re-election in 1832, but four years later 
he was able to name Martin Van Buren as his successor 
in the Presidency. The Washington which Van Buren 
knew was a very different city from the one which lies 
around us. It was still a struggling village. " There 
was not a paved street, and the sidewalks were very im- 
perfect, while the crossings from one side of the street 
to the other were formed of narrow flagstones, and the 
gutters of cobblestones rendered necessary to carry off 
the drainage, which at that time was entirely upon 
the surface. There were no carriages, omnibuses nor 
conveyances of any sort, no gas-light and no water, 
except what was taken from the pumps distributed 
over the cit}'. A pump would often get out of order, 
and that always created trouble in the neighborhood, 
not only with the families, but with the servants, who 
had to travel off a square or two to find a pump and get 
water for domestic wants. The lighting was with oil 
lamps, sparsely distributed, and on dark nights the popu- 
lation had to grope their way about town as best they 
could." 

PRESIDENT HARRISON AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

Van Buren had had long experience in public life, 
and he was one of the ablest of our Presidents, but 
his four years here in the White House were troubled 
ones. He was unjustly held responsible for the severe 
financial panic of 1837, and though his hold upon the 
machinery of his party was strong enough to secure him 
a renomination by the Democrats in 1840, he was over- 
whelmingly defeated by General William Henry Har- 
rison, the candidate of the Whigs. Harrison, however, 
died suddenly at the end of his first month in office. 
His term was served out by Vice-President John Tyler, 
who, though elected as a Whig, early broke with the 



24 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

leaders of that party, and this breach led in 1844 to the 
election of James K. Polk, a Democrat, as his succes- 
sor. The most noteworthy event of Tyler's Adminis- 
tration was the annexation of Texas, and this led dur- 
ing the Presidency of Polk to the war with Mexico, 
which added to the United States the wide stretch of 
territory since divided up into California, Nevada, Ari- 
zona and New Mexico. 

This sudden swelling of the southern portion of the 
Union, and its attendant possibilities, made the slavery 
question an overshadowing issue in national politics. 
Both of the old parties, however, sought to compromise 
with it in the Presidential campaign of 1848. The 
Whigs chose as their candidate General Zachary Tay- 
lor, a slave-holder, while the Democrats named General 
Lewis Cass, a Northern man acceptable to the slave- 
holders. Martin Van Buren consented to become the 
candidate of the anti-slavery men, and his defection 
from the Democracy scaled the fate of Cass, Taylor 
receiving a large majority in the Electoral College. 
But the new President, the scarred veteran of many 
battles, served little more than a year, his death occur- 
ring on July 9, 1850. Five days before he had sat in 
the sun at the foot of this monument during the de- 
livery of two long and tedious orations, and on his re- 
turn to the White House had partaken freely of iced 
milk and cherries. That evening he was seized with 
violent cramps. This was on Thursday, but he did not 
consider himself dangerously ill until Sunday, when 
he said to his attendants, " In two days I shall be a 
dead man." Eminent physicians hastily summoned 
could not arrest the fever which supervened, and on 
Thursday morning came the end. " You have fought a 
good fight, but you cannot make a stand," said the dying 
man to one of the physicians at his bedside. " I have 
tried to do my duty," he murmured a moment later, 
and with these words peacefully breathed his last. 

Vice-President Millard Fillmore now became Presi- 
dent, and a few months later gave his approval to the 
attempt to settle the slavery question known as the 
Compromise of 1850. During this period, Clay, Cal- 



THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 25 

houn and Webster passed from the stage here, and their 
places were taken by a new group of statesmen. Promi- 
nent among these new comers were Stephen A. Douglas 
and Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois ; John P. Hale, of New 
Hampshire; Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi; General 
Sam Houston, of Texas; Ben Wade and Salmon P. 
Chase, of Ohio; Hannibal Hamlin and William P. 
Fessenden, of Maine; Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee; 
Alexander H. Stephens and Eobert Toombs, of Georgia; 
Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts; 
David Wilmot and Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, 
and William H, Seward, of New York, who came to the 
Senate in 1849 by way of the governorship of his State. 
Seward had already won more than local repute as an 
orator, and in the field of national politics he at once 
made his influence felt. No man forestalled him in 
accurate perception of the drift and goal of the slave 
power or in announcing what he saw. His utterances 
on the great issues of the time soon came to be listened 
to with breathless interest by the whole nation; their 
dignity, calmness and cogency gave them weight which 
created or changed opinion. 

The cornerstone of the great shaft from which we 
are taking our first view of Washington was laid on 
Independence Day, IS-iS, and on the same day in 1851, 
under the supervision of Thomas Walter, was begun 
the work of giving the Capitol its present form by the 
construction of a white marble addition at each end 
of the old building, with porticoes proportioned to those 
of the centre structure. The work of reconstruction 
went on without interruption until May, 1861, when 
the Government ordered it to be suspended, but patriotic 
contractors continued operations at their own expense 
and risk, and the sound of the hammer upon the Capi- 
tol did not cease during the Civil War. During 1865 
both wings were completed, and the interior of the 
dome was finished. Walter's long and exacting task 
was done, and he retired to his Pennsylvania home, 
leaving behind him a Capitol that, with all its minor 
faults, is a structure worthy of the republic. 



26 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 



THE ENTRANCE OF THE REPUBLICANS. 

Fillmore, the last of the Whig Presidents, was suc- 
ceeded in 1853 by Franklin Pierce, who gave way at 
the end of a single term to James Buchanan. During 
the eight years covered by the Administrations of Pierce 
and Buchanan that white mansion below us was in an 
especial sense the nerve centre of the nation. The re- 
peal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854 by a bill 
which provided that in future the people of each Terri- 
tory, whether north or south of the line laid down in 
1830, should admit or exclude slavery as they might 
determine by vote, was followed by the formation of 
the Eepublican Party, which, pledged to tlie non-exten- 
sion of slavery, in 1860 scored its first national triumph 
in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, 
Then came the secession of the Southern States, and the 
opening of the Civil War. 

Washington during the first days of that struggle 
underwent a brief period of isolation and of seeming 
peril. The disloyal element in Maryland, within the 
week of the fall of Fort Sumter, burned many of the 
bridges on the railroads running from Baltimore to 
Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and destroyed the tele- 
graph lines, thus completely cutting off Washington 
from communication with the North. Could we have 
crossed the mall at our feet and paid a visit to the 
White House during that period of isolation we should 
have found it guarded by a company of volunteers, 
while in the unoccupied spaces of the Treasury Build- 
ing off there to the right, a regiment of clerks, organized 
for its defence, drilled from early morning until night- 
fall. We should also have found batteries placed in 
commanding positions, guards stationed at every ap- 
proach to the city, and all the public buildings, includ- 
ing school houses, barricaded. 

Washington's isolation ended at noon of Thursday, 
April 25, when the whistle of a locomotive broke the 
silence that brooded over the city. Half an hour later, 
could we have stood where we are standing now, we 
should have seen the Seventh New York, travel-stained 



THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 27 

and dirty, but flanked by cheering crowds, marching 
from the railroad station to the White House, there to 
be reviewed by the President. It was followed next 
morning by the Eighth Massachusetts, which found 
quarters in the Capitol, and the same day brought the 
First Rhode Island. Thenceforward regiments poured 
in unceasingly, and the Washington which lies around 
us changed almost in a day from a sleepy Southern 
town to a city of camps and hospitals. In November 
of 1861 an army of 152,000 men was encamped in and 
around the city. Another year found this host increased 
to 200,000 men, while a score of hospitals sheltered 
twice as many thousand sick and wounded soldiers, and 
150 forts and batteries, mounting upward of 1,200 
guns, guarded the several approaches to the city. 

The fate of the nation was trembling in the balance, 
and in his office out there to the left, where now we 
see the State, War and Navy Building, Edwin M. Stan- 
ton, the great Secretary of War, was doing the work 
that gives him a foremost place among the saviors of 
the Union. Stanton, a man of iron will and heroic 
mold, who to wonderful talent for administration added 
the rare gift of bending strong men to his aims, was 
controlled only by one purpose, and that was the 
utter overthrow of the rebellion. The grasp of his ner- 
vous hand on the lever was felt in every part of the 
vast war machine; he mastered not only the many sided 
affairs of his department, but the details of military 
movement and strategy, and he knew how to choose the 
most efficient agent for the particular task in hand. 
The human unit had small place in his plans; men 
had suffered and died; more must do the same, while 
blows were rained, to the last fibre of power, upon the 
armed foe. Yet he had always a ready ear for the 
sick or wounded soldier, the plainly dressed woman, 
the aged of either sex, and he gave proof on one occa- 
sion tliat beneath a grim exterior beat the tenderest of 
hearts. 

A wounded drummer-boy, discharged for disability 
from a Washington hospital, was told that he could 
not receive his pay and transportation home because 



28 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

his " description papers " had not arrived from the front. 
He waited for weeks, and then one morning made bold 
to approach Secretary Stanton, as the latter was leaving 
his home, and lay his case before him. The Secretary 
bade the boy follow his carriage to the War Office, at 
the same time advising the coachman to drive more 
slowly than usual. Carriage and drummer-boy arrived 
at the entrance to the War Department at the same 
•moment. Stanton, beckoning the lad to follow him, 
entered the door of the first room that he came to, 
seated himself at a vacant desk, seized pen and paper, 
and wrote thereon a peremptory order to have the drum- 
mer-boy's account ascertained from the best data, and 
then paid. This done, he rose from his seat, shook the 
little fellow's hand, and said : " Give my regards, my 
boy, to your mother, and to all good mothers in her 
neighborhood who have their sons at the front. God 
bless you. Good-by ! " 

But the noblest figure of that mighty era was the 
President, Abraham Lincoln. During his first days here, 
the great war President found delight in sunrise visits 
from the White House yonder to the camps and hos- 
pitals in and around the city. He was generally un- 
attended in these rambles, probably from choice, as 
he was thus enabled to mingle freely with the soldiers, 
and to make himself familiar with their needs and con- 
dition. Now and again, in these first days, he would 
find time for an unannounced visit to one of the depart- 
ments in the discharge of some helpful task which he 
did not elect to intrust to others. However, the Presi- 
dent's working hours, after the midsummer of 1861, 
were nearly all passed in his office, a large room in 
the southeast corner of the second story of the White 
House, whose windows blink at us through the sun- 
shine. Lincoln stood often at those windows, and gazed 
upon the Potomac and the camp-strewed Virginia hills. 
Those seeking audience with the President found 
themselves in the presence of a tall, melancholy-appear- 
ing man, who listened to all who came with gentle pa- 
tience. It was his rule to receive callers, save on days 
when the Cabinet met, from nine until two o'clock. 



THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 29 

It was a rule, however, more honored in the breach than 
in the observance. Visitors found their way into his 
presence from early morning until late at night, and 
even his sleeping hours were not free from their im- 
portunities. Lincoln was from the first the personal 
friend of every soldier he sent to the front, and from 
the first also every soldier seemed to divine, as if by 
intuition, that he had Lincoln's heart. Stories of how 
the President interfered personally to secure some right 
or favor for the man afoot with the gun on his shoul- 
der, steadily found their way to the army, and, as the 
war went on and battle followed battle, the wounded 
veteran hobbling across the mall at our feet, and enter- 
ing the White House unattended became a sight too 
familiar to cause remark. None came away without 
cheer or help of some kind, and in all parts of the 
country little cards are treasured by private soldiers, 
each of which bears witness to some kindly act per- 
formed or requested by the President. 

THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR AND AFTjiR. 

Lincoln was re-elected to the Presidency in the 
autumn of 1864, and in the following spring came 
Lee's surrender to Grant and the end of the war. The 
news that the Army of Northern Virginia had at last 
laid down its arms reached here in the early morning 
of April 10, 1865, and could we have stood on that 
day in any of the streets below us we should have found 
each and all of them filled from sunrise until sunset 
with laughing, joyful crowds. There was a salute of 
500 guns ordered by the Secretary of War, and, though 
it was a rainy day and the streets were thick with mud, 
there was marching, cheering, singing and speech-mak- 
ing without end. The following night a great throng 
gathered in front of the White House and was ad- 
dressed by the President. It was the last speech of 
his life — a great leader's parting message to his people. 
When those grouped about him gazed again upon Lin- 
coln's face he had become the gentlest memory in our 
history. 

The story of the murder of the President on the 



30 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

night of April 14, the madman's deed which turned 
the nation's joy to grief, will be told in another place. 
(See page 50.) The following morning the body of 
the dead President was reverently laid in an upper 
chamber of the White House, and thence it was carried 
after a few days for the mighty funeral which reached 
to its last resting place in Illinois. Lincoln was suc- 
ceeded in the Presidency by Andrew Johnson, and later 
years have seen that Executive mansion filled in turn 
by Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. 
Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Ben- 
jamin Harrison, William McKinley, and the present 
incumbent, Theodore Roosevelt. They have also wit- 
nessed the foul assassination of two of Lincoln's suc- 
cessors — Garfield and McKinley; the reconstruction of 
the Union and its expansion to far islands of the sea; 
and the transformation of Washington into the beauti- 
ful city that lies around us — a capital worthy of the 
republic. 

Forty years ago this federal city was little better than 
an overgrown town, far inferior to many State capitals 
in beauty, size and comfort. There were no regular 
grades throughout the city; most of its walks and ave- 
nues were unpaved and ill-kept; the Capitol and the 
present department buildings were unfinished or not 
yet begun ; weeds grew in the parks and commons, and 
where now we see wide reaches of lawn, flanking the 
White House, were stables, wooden fences and patches 
of bare earth. The Civil War, however, wrought a com- 
plete and gratifying change in the hitherto unfortunate 
city. Its population of 70,000 in 1860 nearly doubled 
in a single decade, and, with the return of peace, a 
movement was set on foot by a few liberal citizens to 
rescue it from the ancient ruts of indifference and 
sloth. Congress early in 1871 established a new form 
of government for the District, with governor, legis- 
lature and delegates to Congress. A board of public 
works was also created, with Alexander R. Shepherd 
as chairman. 

This remarkable man, who soon succeeded to the 
governorship, proved equal in every way to the task 



THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 31 

before him. A native of Washington, first a prosperous 
master plumber, and later a large and successful opera- 
tor in real estate, he knew every inch of his city, and 
was an enthusiastic believer in the future which waited 
upon the adequate development of its natural advan- 
tages. He was, moreover, a man of indomitable per- 
severance, and unusual executive ability. Governor 
Shepherd, in carrying out one of the most comprehen- 
sive schemes of municipal improvement ever conceived, 
followed the professional advice of Alexander B. Mul- 
lett, a skilful architect, under whose supervision the 
Treasury Building down there to our right had lately 
taken on its present shape and dimensions, and who 
afterward planned and built the splendid State, War 
and Navy Building over there to our left. Attention 
was first given to the construction of proper sewerage, 
water and gas systems for the city, and the close of 
1873 saw the accomplishment of this triple task. Mean- 
time, the streets within the city limits were raised or 
lowered to uniform gi'ade, paved with wood, concrete 
or Belgian block, and then planted with no less than 
25,000 shade trees, whose subsequent growth, as we can 
see, has given Washington the appearance of a city built 
in a forest. 

Into a space of less than three years Shepherd and 
his lieutenants injected the delayed activity of three- 
quarters of a century, creating the Washington that lies 
around us. The effect of their labors was at once 
seen in a rapid increase in population, and an even 
more rapid rise in real estate values; but Shepherd had 
done his work roughly and hastily, though thoroughly, 
and had created the while a numerous body of powerful 
and active enemies, who, keenly alive to the large in- 
debtedness it created, failed, on the other hand, to ap- 
preciate the beneficial and abiding results it insured. 
He was given no credit for his successes, and only curses 
for his failures, and, though not a dishonest dollar was 
discovered to liear witness against him, he was driven 
from office in disgrace and virtually ostracised in the 
city he had done more than any other to make beauti- 
ful and prosperous. 



32 THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 

Shepherd's downfall, however, in the end resulted 
in lasting benefit to his city. Congress in 1874 abol- 
ished the form of government under which the remaking 
of the capital had been carried forward, and with it the 
elective franchise. The affairs of the district were at 
the same time lodged in the hands of a board of three 
commissioners appointed by the President and con- 
firmed by the Senate. Congress since then has paid 
half the taxes, and the salaries of all officials appointed 
by the President; all others are paid by the District of 
Columbia. Thus for nearly thirty years taxation with- 
out representation has obtained in the national capital, 
yet it is generally admitted that for the District of 
Columbia the present form of government is the best 
possible. Free from scandal of every sort, successive 
boards of commissioners of ability and character have 
administered the affairs of the District during the past 
twenty-eight years more efficiently and economically 
than the affairs of any other American municipality 
have been administered, and to such general satisfaction 
that there has been no lasting criticism. 

Washington under the present form of government 
has doubled in population and in wealth; nor has there 
been any break in the process of making it the most 
beautiful of capitals. Many of its later residents have 
bieen peopjle of wealth or df fixed incomes, dirawn 
hither by its superior attractions, while it has also 
grown to be the favorite resting-place for retired gov- 
ernment officers, especially of the army and navy, and 
a frequented workshop for literary men in all branches 
of their profession. Thence has sprung the erection of 
an increasing number of private residences which lend 
to Washington one of its most pervading charms. A 
majority of these houses are to be found in the now 
fashionable West End, which lies in front and to the 
left of us, and which less than thirty years ago was an 
unattractive waste given over to negro squatters. To- 
day, as we can see, its former swamps and hillocks are 
covered with miles of elegant residences. 

The work of beautifying the city promises to con- 
tinue for many years to come, and there has lately 



THE STORY OF WASHINGTON 33 

been perfected a most comprehensive scheme for the 
development of its present park system, to be prosecuted 
during a long period, and which will involve the reclam- 
ation of large areas of swamp land along the Potomac 
behind us and several islands in that river. Broad 
boulevards are to be cut through the mall at our feet 
and the Botanical Gardens to the right of us, pass the 
Capitol, and swe.ep around the terraced bank of the 
Potomac to the heights of the Anacostia, from which 
point the park system, with its boulevards, will be ex- 
tended northward, skirting the city, to the Maryland 
line, and then around the semicircle to Georgetown. 
Coincident with this work, it is proposed to carry to 
completion the present system of streets and avenues, 
to bring water into the city to supply a projected group 
of fountains, and to indicate proper sites for additional 
statues and public buildings. Thus, many of those who 
with me are now taking their first view of Washington, 
doubtless, will live to see it take on a new and surpass- 
ing charm giving it in beauty and outward attractive- 
ness what it already enjoys in political importance, — 
the foremost place among the capitals of the world. 

Almost within sight of the capital which he called 
into being lie the remains of Washington, guarded by 
a grateful people with reverence and care, but no stone 
marks L'Enfant's grave at Bladensburg, beyond those 
northern hills which shut off our range of vision. None 
is needed, for the city that he planned remains his 
monument and epitaph. 



HOW TO SEE WASHINGTON THROUGH THE 
STEREOSCOPE 

First, move the slide, or carrier, which holds the stereograph 
to the point on the shaft of the stereoscope where the objects 
in the scene can be seen most distinctly. 

Second, have a strong steady light on the stereograph. This 
is often best obtainable by sitting with one side to the window 
tr lamp, letting the light fall over the shoulder. 

Third, hold the stereoscope with the hood close against the 
forehead and temples, shutting off entirely all immediate sur- 
roundings. The more unconscious you are of things close 
about you, the stronger will be your feelings of actual presence 
in the scenes you are studying. 

Fourth, make constant use of the special patented maps in 
the back of this book. First, read the statements in regard 
to the location on the appropriate maps of a place you are 
about to see. Turn to the particular map referred to, Wash- 
ington, the Capitol, or the White House and Vicinity, and find 
the encircled red number and the diverging red lines which 
show exactly what standpoint you are about to take in Wash- 
ington through the stereoscope and what is to be the direction 
and range of your vision. Then, as you turn to the scene, 
think intently of your position in Washington, the direction in 
which you are looking and of your surroundings — the places 
of importance, not only in front of you, but to your right or 
left or behind you. It intensifies one's experience greatly to 
make hand-motions or to point, while keeping your head in the 
stereoscope, toward these places of interest. Then read what- 
ever is said about the scene in the handbook. You will need 
to turn several times from the text to the scene and vice 
versa where there are many details to be discovered. 

Fifth, do not hurry too rapidly from one place to the next. 
Don't think you can really see them all at one sitting. Better 
visit a few and read the references and think them over and 
then take a few more. 

Remember that, while ordinary illustrations usually supple- 
ment the text, in this instance these stereographed scenes of 
Washington are the real text, and all that is said in regard to 
these scenes is only a supplement to them. 



WASHINGTON 



One of the most gratefully remembered moments of 
my life was when I saw Washington for the first time. 
Since then I have dwelt there, and have visited it many 
times. And now again, with you, I am to see our na- 
tional capital, and act as your guide through its streets 
and to its historic places, for with our eyes shut in by 
the hood of the stereoscope we may have a distinct sense 
or experience of location here and there in Washington, 
and be thrilled with many of the same emotions one 
would have were he actually on the spot. 

It is necessary, however, that we should first attain 
a clear sense of our location in each place seen through 
the stereoscope, just where on the earth's surface we 
are standing, in which direction we are looking and then 
what our surroundings must be. Accordingly, let us 
turn to our large map of Washington (Map No. 2) and 
glance for a moment in the upper right-hand corner at 
a general map of the United States. We find that Wash- 
ington is on the north bank of the Potomac, seventy 
miles from the Atlantic. The State of Maryland lies 
north of it and south of it the State of Virginia. NortK 
and east of it at varying distances are Baltimore, Phila- 
delphia and Boston. St. Louis is a thousand miles to 
the west, and Chicago an equal distance to the north- 
west, so that if we live in the chief city of the middle 
West we must journey a day and a night in order to 
visit the national capital. 



36 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

These facts clearly and firmly fixed in our mind, let 
us turn our attention to the plan of Washington on this 
Map No. 2, and locate the point from which we are to 
take our first view of the city. Note a circle, with the 
figure 1 in it, both in red, a little to the south of the 
south bank of the Anacostia Kiver (just outside the 
map margin). At this place is situated the National 
Asylum for the Insane. Notice also two red lines which 
start from this point, and, spreading apart, extend 
toward the northwest. We are to stand first at the 
place from which these tw'o lines diverge, that is in front 
of the National Asylum for the Insane, and look across 
the Anacostia or Eastern Branch of the Potomac at that 
particular portion of Washington which the lines 
enclose. 

Position 1, The Centre of the Nation's Life, — 

Washington, N.N.W., across E. Branch of 

River to the Capitol, U.S.A. 

And this is Washington! for more than a hundred 
years the heart and nerve-centre of our national life, 
endeared by a thousand moving and heroic associations 
to uncounted millions of men. Washington was its 
founder; Adams, Jefferson and Madison were the guar- 
dians of its struggling and doubtful infancy ; out there, 
little over a mile from us, Webster, Clay and Calhoun 
won the fame and did the work that have now become 
an inseparable part of our history ; there began the real 
rule of the people under Jackson's masterful leadership ; 
there was waged the long contest as to whether the 
nation should be bond or free; and there centered the 
desperate and finally successful struggle to save it from 
dismemberment. 

Memories like these make this city before us part of 
the proud and precious heritage of every American; and 

Posltloal. Map 2. 



THE WASHINGTON NAVY YARD 37 

what a goodly city it is as we see it now bathed in sun- 
shine ! Directly before us, looming up against the hori- 
zon, is the great white dome of the Capitol, the stateliest 
home ever provided for the lawmakers of a mighty 
people. A little farther to the right we discover the 
dome of the Library of Congress, which has already 
become to America what the British Museum is to 
England, what the National Library is to France. The 
Washington Monument, the most imposing single ob- 
ject of great dimensions erected by modern hands, and 
the White House, flanked by the State and Treasury 
Buildings, are situated outside the range of our vision 
on the left. Washington is divided into four quarters, 
North East, South East, North West and South West, 
whose corners come together at the Capitol. The quar- 
ter directly in front of us is known as Washington South 
West, and is occupied in the main by working people. 

Many of the residents of Washington South West are 
employed in the Navy Yard, on the opposite banlc of this 
Eastern Branch of the Potomac. This Navy Yard is 
nearly as old as Washington itself. It was founded in 
1800, when John Adams was President, but when, in 
1814, the British captured Washington, the yard was 
destroyed by fire to keep the ships and supplies stored 
there from falling into the hands of the invaders. With 
the return of peace, however, work was begun on new 
buildings to replace those destroyed by the fire. When 
steam began to be used for propelling warships, engines 
and other machinery were made in the Navy Yard. 
Small shops, about the same time, were built for the 
manufacture of guns, and from this modest beginning 
has sprung the largest gun factory in America. Many 
of the guns on the ships which fought and conquered 
in the war against Spain were cast and forged down 
there by the river bank. Within recent years a museum 

PoslUoal. Map 2. 



38 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

has been established at the Navy Yard, in which are 
displayed many valuable trophies of the navy, gathered 
in time of peace and war. The exhibit includes relics 
from the Kearsarge, which sunk the Alabama; from 
the Monitor and Merrimac, and from many of the ves- 
sels which engaged in the great battles of the Civil War. 
Could we have stood here on a September afternoon 
in 1825 and looked down upon the Navy Yard, we 
should have beheld an interesting and historic spec- 
tacle. In 1824 the venerable Lafayette, trusted com- 
rade of Washington and firm friend of the republic 
when it stood most iti need of friends, paid a last visit 
to America. He came on the invitation of the national 
government, and, having visited every portion of the 
country, to be everywhere received with lively mani- 
festations of love and respect, he came to Washington 
to become in fact the nation's guest at the White House. 
When on September 7, 1825, he bade a final farewell 
to America, a distinguished company gathered at the 
White House to take leave of him. When all was in 
readiness, President John Quincy Adams addressed him 
in language signally eloqvient and touching, and so 
moving and pathetic was Lafayette's reply that there 
were few tearless eyes among those who listened to his 
words. Immediately after this scene Lafayette left the 
Wliite House and proceeded to the Navy Yard. There 
the lately launched frigate Brandywinc, so named in 
grateful remembrance of his gallant part in one of the 
battles of the Revolution, awaited his coming, and on 
board of it he left America never to return. 

It was a wise traveller who when he visited a new 
place always sought to see it from above. This is what 
we have been doing, looking down upon the central 
part of Washington from the high ground on which 

Position I. Map 2. 



WASHINGTON FROM ARLINGTON 39 

stands the National Asylum for the Insane. We shall 
now move to another eminence, which has, up to this 
time, been off to our left, and look down on Washin^on 
toward the east. Turn again to our general map of 
Washington. Near the left-hand limits of the map we 
find Arlington National Cemetery set back a little way 
from the bank of the Potomac. At the lower end of 
this cemetery is a circle enclosing the figure 2, and 
from this circle two red lines branch out toward the 
right, or east. Follow them, and we find the figure 2 
at the end of each. We shall stand next at the point 
from which these two lines start and look east over the 
Potomac and all that part of Washington lying between 
these lines. 

Position 2. Washington, East front Arlington, 

across the Potomac,— the Monument, Capitol, 

and Library in Sight. U.S.A. 

We are standing now in the lower end of Arlington 
National Cemetery and are looking east over Washing- 
ton. The thick foliage which makes beautiful this 
noble resting place of the nation's dead hides much of 
the city from view, but there to our left, beyond the 
Potomac, the Washington Monument rises before us, 
while to the right, though by distance more faintly out- 
lined against the horizon, we descry the domes of the 
Capitol and the Library of Congress. Fort Myer is to 
our left, behind us are the Virginia hills, while to our 
right runs the railroad to Alexandria and Mount Ver- 
non. All these are hidden from view, yet it is a noble 
and unforgetable scene that lies before us. Here happy 
children come to play; yonder, only a few yards away,' 
a wbite marble cross marks the grave of one of the 
nation's bravest captains. General Guy V. Henry, while 
beyond the silvery, slow-moving Potomac at our feet lies 

Position 2. Map 2. 



40 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

the great city of the living, wrapt in the soft haze of 
an autumn noon. A longer view reveals new beauties 
on. every hand, but it is to the tall white shaft shoot- 
ing up beyond the river that the eye involuntarily re- 
turns after each study of things far or near at hand. 
Let us cross to the city and take a closer view of it. 

Turn again to our general map of Washington. A 
little to the west of its center we find the State, War 
and Navy Building, set down in the northwest corner 
of the President's Grounds. A circle at the southwest 
end of this building encloses the figure 3, and from 
the circle a zigzag line runs to the point where two red 
lines branch out to the south and southeast. At the 
end of each of these lines on the map margin we find 
the figure 3. This position is also shown on Map No. 4, 
" White House and Vicinity." We are to stand now at 
the point where the red lines start, that is on the roof 
of the State Department, and see the Monument and 
that part of Washington included between these lines. 

Position 3, Front State Department SoutJi over 

Executive Grounds, Monument, and Potomac 

Miver, Washington, U.S.A. 

We are now looking a little east of south, and here 
right before us is the mighty pile we saw from the 
heights on the Virginia shore. To the left of the Monu- 
ment is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and 
beyond it the Potomac, shut in by the Maryland hills. 
Hidden from view to our left, though only a few rods 
away, is the White House ; to our right are Georgetown 
and the north bank of the Potomac, and behind us is 
that beautiful portion of the capital known as Washing- 
ton North West. Truly a fitting setting for the noble 
column which each moment claims a larger mede of 
our av/e and admiration, for the Monument is like a 

Posliloa 3. Maps 2, 4. 



THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT 41 

mountain in that it grows on its beholder. It was 
beautiful when we saw it from the Virginia shore, but 
less stately and impressive in its proportions than when 
we view it close at hand and on approximately the level 
of its base ; and you will admit that I spoke truly when 
I said that it was the most imposing single object of 
great dimensions erected by modern hands. 

Neither will you be surprised when I tell you that 
it was more than an ordinary life time in building. 
Indeed, its history proves the random fashion in which 
things often get themselves done in this republic of 
ours. The celebration in 1833 of the hundredth anni- 
versary of the birth of Washington brought into being 
the Washington National Monument Association, which 
had for its object the erection of a fitting memorial to 
the first President here at the capital. The original 
plan for the monument provided for a granite shaft 
faced with white marble 600 feet in height. Subscrip- 
tions were asked for from the country at large, and at 
the end of fifteen years some $87,000 had been contri- 
buted. Then, a site having been selected on the Mall 
before us, on the very spot chosen by Washington him- 
self for a memorial of the American Eevolution, the 
work of construction began, and on Independence Day, 
1848, the corner-stone of the great shaft was laid. 

Thereafter the construction of the Monument was 
continued until 1856, when, the funds of the society 
being exhausted and appeals for further contributions 
meeting with no response, the work was stopped. Noth- 
ing more was done until 1877, when the completion of 
the Monument was authorized by Congress, and Colonel 
Thomas L. Casey, of the Engineer Corps, was placed in 
charge. Various changes of the original plans were 
made by him, including the building of an entire new 
base. On the completion of the Monument, early in 

PoMltloa 3. Maps 2, 4. 



43 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

1885, Congress passed a resolution providing for suit- 
able dedicatory ceremonies. These were appropriate!}' 
held on Washington's Birthday at the base of the 
Monument, and later in the House of Eepresentatives, 
the orator of the occasion, by an equally happy inspira- 
tion, being the venerable Robert C. Winthrop, who when 
Speaker of Congress more than a generation before had 
performed a similar service at the laying of the corner- 
stone. A few of the words spoken by Mr. Winthrop 
on the earlier occasion deserve to be quoted in this 
place, as we reflect upon the character of the man whom 
yonder shaft commemorates, " Lay the corner-stone of 
a monument," said he, " which shall adequately bespeak 
the gratitude of the whole American people to the il- 
lustrious Father of his Country. Build it to the skies; 
you cannot outreach the loftiness of his principles. 
Found it upon the massive and eternal rock; you can- 
not make it more enduring than his fame. Construct 
it of the peerless Parian marble; you cannot make it 
purer than his life. Exhaust upon it the rules and 
principles of ancient and modern art; you cannot make 
it more proportionate than his character." 

The Monument before us is the highest and experts 
say that it is the best piece of masonry in the world. 
By a plumb line suspended from the top of the Monu- 
ment in its shaft a deflection of not more than three- 
eights of an inch has been noticed. The heat of the 
sun, which deflects Bunker Hill Monument and alters 
the length of the great spans of the Brooklyn Bridge, 
does not greatly disturb this wonderful column. Its 
walls at the base, which are fifty-five feet square, are 
fifteen feet thick. At the fi\e-hundred-feet elevation, 
where the pyramidal top begins, the walls are only 
eighteen inches thick and about thirty-five feet square. 
In fact, it would make a magnificent sun-dial. It is 

Position 3. Maps 2, 4. 



THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING 43 

without any inscription whatever; it has not locally 
even a name, but is simply known as " the Monument." 
It is only in other cities that it is the " Washington 
Monument." 

The Monument, as I told you a moment ago, is the 
highest work of masonry in the world, its height from 
base to tip of pyramid being 555 feet and 5^ inches. 
Lofty as is the dome of St. Peter's at Rome, its top is 
thirty-seven feet nearer the earth than that of the shaft 
which shoots skyward from these beautiful grounds. 
Indeed, the grandeur of its proportions only comes home 
to us when we compare it to some object close at hand. 
The chimney-stack of the Bureau of Engraving and 
Printing over there to our left is more than 150 feet 
high, yet it seems a puny thing when compared with its 
giant neighbor. The Bureau of Printing and Engrav- 
ing itself, as you will see, is a spacious and roomy struc- 
ture, but the overshadowing Monument dwarfs it into 
insignificance. However, it covers the better part of 
an acre and nearly 1,500 people are employed within its 
walls. 

The Bureau is also one of the most important branches 
of the public service, for there are printed the Govern- 
ment bonds and the national currency, at the rate of a 
million dollars every twenty-four hours, together with 
postage and revenue stamps. Each bond, note and 
stamp passes through the hands of thirty different 
people, and the poorest girl emploj^ed in that brick 
pile handles enough money every working day to make 
you and me rich for life. 

But again and again the eye travels back to the 
]\Ionument, which has the air of a stately aristocrat 
standing proudly aloof among struggling nobodies. Note 
that the pyramid which surmounts the shaft proper is 

Position 3. MapM 2, 4. 



44 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

pierced near the base with what dimly appear at this 
distance to be auger holes. These are port-openings 
or windows, two in each face of the pyramid, and if we 
cross the Mall, and, entering the Monument, climb the 
stairway or take the elevator which ascends to its top, 
we shall be able through these port-openings to command 
unexampled views of Washington from all points of the 
compass. This we are to do now. Turn once more to 
our general map of Washington. Thereon we find the 
Monument set down a little to the south of the White 
House. Just north of it a circle encloses the figure 4, 
with a zigzag line running to the Monument, from which 
two lines branch out toward the north. Follow the two 
lines to the margin of the map and we find the figure 4 
at the end of each of them. We are to take our posi- 
tion now at the top of the Monument and look out over 
all that part of the city which those two red lines 
include. 

Position 4. Front Washington Monument north, 

White Mouse, Treasury, and State Depart- 

tnents, Washington, U.S.A. 

Now we are standing in the top of the Monument 
and are looking north. What a noble prospect, for the 
most interesting portion of Washington is lying at our 
feet. There, 500 feet below us, is the White House, 
flanked on the right or east by the Treasury Building, 
and on the left or West by the State, War and Navy 
Building. Farther to our right, two and a half miles 
awny, is the Capitol, and to our left is Georgetown, 
while the Potomac and Virginia are behind us. Be- 
yond the northern hills, which limit our range of vision 
in front, is Maryland, and then central Pennsylvania. 
All these are hidden from view, but a multitude of 
things demand our attention in the scene immediately 

Position 4. Map 2. 



HISTORIC LAFAYETTE SQUARE 45 

before us. Behind the White House, wholly hidden by 
the trees, is Lafayette Square, where some of the most 
famous men in our history have had their homes. The 
shaded thoroughfare running north from Lafayette 
Square is Sixteenth Street, and the diagonal thorough- 
fares which flank it, the one on the east and the other 
on the west, are Vermont and Connecticut Avenues. 
Where Vermont Avenue has its beginning at the north- 
east corner of Lafayette Square, facing both Vermont 
Avenue and H Street, is the Arlington Hotel, the ren- 
dezvous of many public men, and to the right of that, 
in the rear of the Treasury Building, is the Shoreham 
Hotel, for the section of Washington before us is the 
otie most frequented by strangers. 

Peeping above the trees, on the north of Lafayette 
Square, we see the picturesque spire of St. John's 
Church, with a single exception the oldest church in 
Washington. One of the pews is set apart for the 
President, and it is sometimes called the Church of 
State. Just across Sixteenth Street from old St. John's 
we see the roof of the residence of Secretary of State 
John Hay, one of the lordly homes of Washington. 
Turning again to the right, we descry a tall building 
facing Lafayette Square from the rear of the Treasury 
Building, with many windows on the top floor. That 
is the Lafayette Square Opera House, and the plot of 
ground which it occupies is rich in historic associa- 
tions, for until 1895 it was the site of the most sorrow- 
ful, perhaps the most notable, of all Washington man- 
sions. The house in question was built by Commodore 
Rodgers. Roger Taney lived there after its builder's 
death. There William H. Seward had his home when 
Secretary of State, and there he was attacked by the 
assassin Payne on the fatal 14th of April, 1865, and 
received wounds that he carried to his grave. There, 

PoalUoa4. Map 2. 



4G WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

too, Seward saw his wife and daughter die. Later still 
the house was occupied by another Secretary of State, 
James G. Blaine, who there reached the end of his bit- 
ter, splendid life. There death took away within two 
months Blaine's daughter and his oldest son, his last 
and greatest political aspiration came to naught, and 
a second son followed the first to the grave. Finally 
the great Secretary, broken in spirit, took to his bed, 
and, in 1893, died in the same room where Payne made 
his dastardly attack on Seward. 

Now let us turn, and from our lofty eyrie look out 
over another portion of Washington. Once again lo- 
cating the Monument on our general map of Washing- 
ton, we find the two red lines which extend from it in 
a southeasterly direction to the lower map margin, hav- 
ing there the figure 5 at the end of each of them. Thus 
we know precisely what part of the city we are to look 
upon. 

Position 5. From Washington Monument, south 
along Wharves and Pototnac River, 
Washington, U.S.A. 

Now we are looking south from the Monument, and 
how different is the scene spread out at our feet from 
the one upon which we were gazing only a moment ago. 
The island down there to our right is land reclaimed 
from the Potomac, and soon to be converted into a pub- 
lic park, while the stretch of water which separates it 
from the mainland is Washington Channel. Beyond 
the tip of the island are the hills of Maryland, while 
that point of land jutting out into the river on our 
left furnishes a site for the Government arsenal and 
barracks. The Capitol is on our left, Analostan Island 
on our right and behind us the White House. These 



PoalUoa4,S. Map 2. 



THE FAMOUS LONG BRIDGE 47 

we cannot see, but before us are a hundred proofs that 
we are on the waterfront of a great city, though one 
not given to manufactures, for the steamers which we 
see warped to the wharfs are all passenger vessels ply- 
ing between Washington and Mount Vernon, Norfolk 
and other points on the Potomac and Chesapeake. Note 
the bridge down there on our right which joins island 
with mainland. That is the famous Long Bridge, 
which connects Washington with the Virginia shore, 
and no structure of the same sort has played a larger 
part in history. Could we have stood here forty odd 
years ago we should have seen uncounted regiments 
marching over that bridge and into the Civil War, or a 
little later we should have beheld the bronzed and battle- 
scarred survivors returning by the same route to take 
part in the grand review which marked the close of the 
greatest military struggle of modern times. 

It was across Long Bridge down yonder that Julia 
Ward Howe drove on an autumn day in 1861 for the 
visit to a review of the Army of the Potomac, encamped 
on the Virginia hills, which gave birth to her match- 
less " Battle Hymn of the Republic." As she and her 
companions drove back into Washington over that very 
bridge, Mrs. Howe, to beguile the time, began to sing 
" John Brown's Body." Then she spoke to her friends 
in the carriage of a cherished desire to write some 
words of her own that might be sung to the stirritig 
tune, but added that she feared that she would never 
be able to do it. She lay down that night with her 
head full of thoughts of battle, and awoke before dawn 
the next morning to find the desired versos swiftly tak- 
ing shape in her mind. When she had thought out the 
last of five stanzas, she sprang from her bed, and in 
the dim, gray light found a pen and paper, whereon 
she wrote, scarcely seeing them, the lines of the poem. 

Position S. Map 2. 



48 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

Eeturning to her couch, she was presently asleep, but 
not until she said to herself, " I like this better than 
anything I have ever written," a verdict in which she 
has been sustained by the world, for her lines have in 
them the very breath of a heroic time, and of the 
feeling with which it was fdled. 

BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC. 

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: 
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath 

are stored; 
He hath loosed the fatal lightning of His terrible swift sword: 
His truth is marching on. 

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling 

camps; 
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and 

damps; 
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring 

lamps; 

His day is marching on. 

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel: 
" As ye deal with My contemners so with you My grace shall 

deal; 
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel! 
Since God is marching on." 

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat: 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat; 
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet! 
Our God is marching on. 

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born, across the sea, 
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: 
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
While God is marching on. 

The scene before us recalls other stirring memories 
of the war time. Within the walls of the arsenal, on 
PoaMoaS. Map 2. 



A MEMORABLE TRIAL 49 

that point of land over there at the mouth of Wash- 
ington Channel,, oocurred the trial of those concerned 
with Booth in the murder of President Lincoln, and 
there Payne, who attempted the life of Secretary 
Seward; Atzerot, who had been selected to assassinate 
Vice-President Johnson, but whose nerve failed him 
at the last moment, and Herold, who accompanied 
Booth in his flight after the murder of Lincoln, died 
upon the gallows. There also a like fate was meted 
out to Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, whose execution has often 
been denounced by many well-meaning people as a judi- 
cial murder. Those who have made a careful study 
of the documents in the case, however, hold a different 
view. Booth and his associates had held their meetings 
at her house in Washington; she had had repeated in- 
terviews with Booth on the day of Lincoln's murder, 
and these facts, with other evidence, were regarded by 
her judges as conclusive proof that she was accessory 
before the fact to the assassination of the President. 

If from our point of vantage here in the top of the 
Monument we look now upon another portion of Wash- 
ington, we shall have before us the setting of that 
strange terrific tragedy. Turning to the general map 
of Washington, we find two red lines branching north- 
east from the Monument, and having the figure 6 at 
each end of them on the map margins. These lines 
show the limits of our next field of vision. 

Position 6. From Washington Monument, north- 
east, past General Post-office and other Govern- 
ment Huildings, Washington, D. C 

Now we are looking northeast from the Monument 
over the busiest section of Washington. Directly below 
us is the towering Post-office Building, set down at the 

Position S, 6. Map 2. 



50 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Twelfth Street. 
The great white structure which we see beyond and left 
of it, covering a block, is the Department of the Inte- 
rior, popularly known as the Patent Office, at the cor- 
ner of Ninth and F Streets (see Map). The wide- 
spreading red pile which towers above its neighbors in 
the distance to the right is the Pension Office, at the 
corner of Fifth and F Streets, The Potomac is behind 
us ; hidden from our view on our right and left are the 
Capitol and White House, and on the distant hill on 
our right is the Columbian Itistitution for Deaf Mutes, 
one of the first institutions of its kind set afoot in 
America. Ten miles away in that direction is Bladens- 
burg, the scene of our defeat by the British, the day 
before they came here to destroy the city. Forty miles 
away in that direction is Baltimore, and nearly a hun- 
dred miles farther away is Philadelphia. 

Let us look again at the Post-office Building directly 
before us. A block north of the Patent Office we descry 
the steeple of a church — Calvary Baptist Church at the 
corner of Eighth and H Streets. A bird flying from 
the tower of the Post-office Building to the spire of 
Calvary Baptist Church would pass midway in its flight 
directly over the roof of Ford's Theatre, which faces 
Tenth Street midway between E and F Streets. At 
midday of April 14, 1865, there was loitering before 
the old theatre, then the principal playhouse in Wash- 
ington, a handsome young actor, by name John Wilkes 
Booth, a name famous in the annals of the stage, but 
destined by its bearer to be made before the day's end 
the most sinister in our history. Wilkes Booth, as his 
intimates called him, was then twenty-six years old, 
and as an actor gave promise of being the equal of his 
father and older brother. He was, however, of an un- 
toward disposition, verging often upon madness, and 

Position 6. Map 2. 



MURDER OF LINCOLN 51 

given to violent excesses of every kind. He was a fan- 
atical supporter of the Southern cause, and during the 
previous month, as it came out afterwards, had been 
the master-spirit in a plot to kidnap the President and 
carry him into the Confederate lines. Among Booth's 
associates in this kidnapping was David E. Herold, a 
Washington drug-clerk; George Atzerot, a Gennan 
coach-painter, and Lewis Payne, an ex-Confederate 
soldier. 

The plot failed, through no fault of the conspirators, 
but Booth lingered in Washington, and at midday of 
April 14th appeared out there at Ford's Theatre, where 
he was informed that the President and General Grant, 
with their wives, were to attend the play that evening. 
An insane impulse to kill Lincoln had, doubtless, found 
a lodging in his thoughts through the failure of his 
abduction plot, and this now took instant shape in the 
face of the opportunity chance held out to him. Dur- 
ing the afternoon he effected a meeting with Herold, 
who agreed to join him in the flight which must fol- 
low his attempt on the President's life. Then he sought 
and found Payne and Atzerot, who, it was arranged, 
should attempt the life of Secretary Seward and Vice- 
President Johnson at the same time that their leader 
struck down the President and General Grant. 

The President and his party reached the theatre about 
half-past eight o'clock, but without General and Mrs, 
Grant, who had decided to go North that night. Amid 
the cheers of a great audience they made their way to 
an upper box at the left of the stage, and the actors 
went on with the play. Half an hour later. Booth stole 
through the streets at our feet and reappeared at the 
theatre, having first committed the horse he had pro- 
cured for his flight to the care of a boy stationed in 
an alley at the rear of the building. The actors had 

Position 6. Map 2. 



53 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

reached the second scene of the third act of " The 
American Cousin," when Booth, who was a privileged 
person to the attendants of the theatre, passed behind 
the seats of the dress circle and approached the passage 
to the President's box. A moment later he opened and 
entered the door leading from the passage to the box. 

He liad a pistol in his right hand, and moved so cau- 
tiously that no one heard him. The President was 
sitting in a large arm-chair at the left of the box, with 
bowed head, intent upon the play. Booth crept up 
within a foot of his chair, took aim at his head and 
fired. Major Eathbone, the President's only male com- 
panion, sprang to his feet at the sound of the shot and 
grappled with the intruder, only to receive a blow from 
the dagger which Booth How held in his hand. Rath- 
bone's hold relaxed, and Booth, appearing at the front 
of the box, vaulted the railing. A stirrup on his boot 
caught in the draperies of the box, and he fell heavily 
to the stage below, a distance of fourteen feet. His 
left leg bent and a bone snapped as he struck the floor, 
but he was on his feet in an instant, and, facing the 
wondering house, shouted, " The South is avenged ! " 
Then he turned and disappeared behind the scenes, A 
moment later he mounted his horse in the rear of the 
theatre, and began the headlong flight through the 
streets over there to our right which was to end with 
his death on April 27th in a burning barn in Virginia. 

A full realization of the tragedy that had befallen 
now burst upon the audience. Without delay a stretcher 
was brought in, and the unconscious and dying Lincoln 
carried from the theatre to a room in a lodging-house 
across the way; while those in the theatre rushed forth 
to carry the news throughout the city at our feet. Thus 
news of the tragedy spread with the swiftness of the 
wind, and as it spread met other news which doubled 

Position 6. Map 2. 



DEATH OF LINCOLN 53 

the horror of that awful night. Vice-President John- 
son was scathless^ for Atzerot's nerve had failed him 
at the last moment, but Payne, endowed with more 
brute courage, had stolen through the streets to our 
left, and, gaining admission to the house of Secretary 
Seward on Lafayette Square, turned it into a human 
shambles. Seward's two sons were wounded by the 
intruder when they sought to stay his progress, while 
their father, who was ill in bed, received three stabs 
from an ugly knife, as a result of which his life hung 
for weeks by a thread. Then Payne succeeded in making 
his escape, only to be speedily captured, along with At- 
zerot and Herold, and to pay, in due time, the penalty 
of his crime. 

Meanwhile, in the lodging-house over there in Tenth 
Street, the night slowly waned into morning, with no 
perceptible change in the condition of the unconscious 
President. Soon after daylight, however, the breath- 
ing became easier and the features took on a more peace- 
ful expression. " Symptoms of immediate dissolu- 
tion," ran the bulletin issued at seven o'clock, and 
twenty-two minutes later Lincoln died. " Now he be- 
longs to the ages," said Secretary Stanton, breaking the 
solemn silence which followed the announcement that 
the great heart had ceased to beat. There was a prayer, 
and then, one by one, the watchers withdrew, and the 
dead was left alone. Two hours later the body of the 
President was borne to the Wliite House, where it lay 
until Monday night. It was then placed in the casket 
prepared for it, and laid in the centre of the great East 
Room. The following morning the public were ad- 
mitted to view the face of the dead. All day long a 
sorrowing, tearful throng surged past the bier, and 
when the gates were closed at night Lafayette Square 



Positioa 6. Map 2. 



64 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

and the streets around it were still packed with people 
waiting for admission. 

The funeral was held at the noon hour of Wednesday, 
and then the body was borne through the streets before 
us to the Capitol and placed under the dome of the 
rotunda. There, after a brief service, it was left alone, 
save only for a guard of soldiers; but on Thursday the 
Capitol was opened, and again, as on Tuesday, from 
dawn until nightfall, a steadily lengthening throng paid 
to the dead its last tribute of affection and respect. 
Finally, in the early morning of Friday, April 22d, the 
coffin was carried from the Capitol, through streets 
lined with another uncovered multitude, to the railway 
station, where it was placed in the funeral car of the 
train which was to convey the remains from Washing- 
ton to Springfield. Sharply at eight o'clock the train 
left Washington; and so the Great Emancipator took 
silent farewell of the capital he had helped to make 
glorious. Ford's Theatre is now used for business pur- 
poses; but the house across the way in which the Presi- 
dent died contains a collection of Lincoln relics. 

Let us turn now from the tragic past to the busy 
present. Few of those who daily pass that Post-office 
Building take thought of the fact that it is the centre 
of the greatest business concern in the world. Yet 
such is the case, for the postal establishment of the 
United States employs more men and women than 
any other government or corporation. Only one cor- 
poration — a combination of railways — earns and dis- 
burses as much as the Post-office Department, nor does 
any branch of the Government come into as close con- 
tact with the average citizen. Perhaps, to the layman, 
the most interesting phase of the many-sided activities 
carried on under the roof of that gray stone structure 
is the handling of the mail matter which finds its way 

Positloa6. Map 2. 



THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE 55 

to the Dead Letter Office on the second floor. This 
consists, in the main, of unclaimed letters, and of let- 
ters which cannot be sent anywhere else, owing to the 
illegibility of the address or to the lack of something 
apparently essential to delivery. The experts of the 
Dead Letter Office, most of whom are women, are often 
called upon not only to decipher the scrawls on an 
envelope, but to supply the name of the town which the 
correspondent has omitted. Thousands of other letters 
bear simply the name of the person addressed and the 
State in which he lives, while others omit even the 
State; in spite of which omissions they are commonly 
sent to their proper destination. 

In the Dead Letter Office there are destroyed every 
year more than four million letters containing no en- 
closures, which cannot be returned to writers. It de- 
stroys also a great quantity of letters and parcels con- 
taining matter classed as unmailable. Many hundreds 
of sealed envelopes under letter postage are found to 
contain lottery circulars, and these, of course, are de- 
stroj^ed immediately. Green goods circulars are found 
in some envelopes, and these, if they cannot be of 
value to the police in tracing the swindlers, are destroyed 
also. Then there are animals, and bugs, and bottles 
of liquid, and all sorts of things which under the postal 
regulations are not to be carried in the mails. Alli- 
gators, and snakes, and butterflies, and bugs of all kinds 
are constantly coming and going through the mails. 
At one time there was a craze for chameleons, and thou- 
sands of these little lizards were mailed in the South 
to addresses all over the United States; and since they 
were comparatively li armless alive or dead no great ef- 
fort was made to stop the business. But it happens not 
infrequently that in the Dead Letter Office an exceed- 
ingly lively snake or an offensively dead animal comes 

Poaitload. Map 2. 



66 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

to light. The most undesirable package ever received 
came from the West. It was a perforated tin can and 
contained seventeen rattlesnakes. Fifteen of them were 
alive and ready for business, but two of them had failed 
to survive their trip. The clerk who opened the pack- 
age happened to have just returned from a spree, and 
Ills nerves were a trifle unsteady. As the vicious rep- 
tiles rolled out, he simply said: 

" I've got 'em again ! " 

The alarm of the rest of the clerks, however, soon 
convinced him that he was dealing with genuine snakes. 

Another branch of the Government whose influence is 
felt in every nook and corner of the land is the Pension 
Building in the distance to our right, at Fourth and 
F Streets, a building of such huge dimensions that at 
the inauguration balls wliich are held there 18,000 
people have been gathered within its walls. Five thou- 
sand clerks, many a one wearing the bronze button of 
the veteran, are employed there, and from it is yearly 
disbursed upwards of $150,000,000 in pensions for those 
who fought in our several wars, or their widows and 
orphans. The rolls stored in that building contain 
nearly a million names, whose bearers are distributed 
all over the world. Even on far St. Helena, where 
Napoleon died, there is a man who draws $141 a year 
from the United States. There are 415 veterans in Ire- 
land, who annually get over $60,000 from this country. 
In distant Siam there are two others, and in every 
continent are American pensioners. There are now on 
the pension roll several widows and daughters of Eevo- 
lutionary soldiers, nearly 2,000 widows of the soldiers 
of the War of 1813, between 5,000 and 6,000 survivors 
and widows of the Indian wars and over 17,000 survivors 
and widows of the Mexican War. Yet so perfect is the 
system in force within that building that within five 

Posltha6. Map 2. 



THE PENSION OFFICE 57 

minutes after inquiry the entire record of a pension 
case may be put before one. 

Let me tell you something about the building in 
which this immense business in transacted and which 
lies before us. It is the largest brick structure in the 
world, and its roof covers two acres of ground. It is 
made of red pressed brick, a mighty three-story struc- 
ture with, as you see, a great glass roof rising tier by 
tier over it, and consists of a series of big rooms around 
a great central court. This court is much like the 
court of St. Mark's in Venice, save that St. Mark's 
has only the Italian sky to roof it, while the Pension 
Court is protected from the cold by a sky of glass, and 
its glass roof is upheld by eighty brick columns higher 
than any city house outside of a flat and thicker than 
any tree in America outside of California. Each of 
these columns contains enough brick to build two good 
sized houses, and in the ages of the future they may 
stand here like obelisks when the rest of the building 
has crumbled into ruins. 

Around this great court are arcades rising gallery 
above gallery and opening out from the three stories 
of rooms. Some of the columns of these are gilded or 
bronzed. The finish of the court, the columns and the 
walls is in white, the diamond glass roof is set in framed 
mosaic of yellow and the acre of floor is of colored tiles. 
In the centre of the court a great fountain sends up 
a silvery spray, and the whole is one of the curiosities 
of architecture. It was in this building that the last 
five inaugural balls were held, and it is here that all 
the great balls of the future Presidents will be cele- 
brated. At the present the floor is filled with great 
eases of files, and you may walk for a mile in and out 
through the aisles surrounded by them. 

These old papers contain the names of the most noted 

Position 6. Map 2. 



58 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

men of our history. Blaine's great-grandmother got a 
pension, and Grant and Lincoln received land for their 
services in the Mexican and Black Hawk Wars. Eobert 
E. Lee got 160 acres of land for the work he did as 
a colonel in our war with Mexico, and Jefferson Davis 
received the same amount for his services. Mrs. Gar- 
field, Mrs. Harrison and Mrs. McKinley are the only 
Presidents' wives who now receive pensions. They get 
$5,000 a year by a special act of Congress. Mrs. Lin- 
coln got $3,000 a year from 1870 to 1882. The amount 
was then increased to $5,000, and this continued until 
her death. 

The daughter of President Taylor gets fifty dollars a 
month, and she receives this for her father's services 
in the Mexican War. Among the noted widows of 
generals of the Civil War who receive pensions are 
those of Banks, Gresham, Custer, Anderson, Casey, Gib- 
bon, Kilpatrick and Warren. Mrs. John A. Logan re- 
ceives forty dollars a week by a special act of Congress, 
and there are a number of other soldiers' widows who 
have been pensioned in the same way. 

In the rear of the Pension Office, and to the extreme 
right of our range of vision, we see the seven-storied 
Government Printing Office, which annually produces 
millions of documents. The building's floor space cov- 
ers upward of nine acres, and no printing office in the 
world is so well appointed, or has so many comforts 
and conveniences for its employes. Under that great 
roof upon which we are gazing are represented nearly 
all branches of the printer's art. Every sort of jobbing 
is done; illustrated books are published; some of the 
reports, indeed, are equal to monthly magazines, and 
even the daily tiewspaper is represented in The Con- 
gressional Record. Orders are taken for millions of 
blanks at a time, for the printing office supplies them 

Poultloa 6. Map 2. 



GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 59 

to every custom house, land office, internal revenue of- 
fice, pension agency, post-office, Navy, War, consular 
and diplomatic office in the service of the United States. 
All the pay-rolls, officers' commissions, men's discharges, 
millions of envelopes for use at the Capitol, census 
blanks, scientific works and reports of geographical and 
gealogical surveys — all these and more are sent out. 

Many books are printed, one of the largest being the 
records of the War of the Rebellion, one hundred and 
twenty volumes having already been published. One 
of the most interesting features is the rapidity with 
which the work can be accomplished, as a great deal 
of it is Congressional, and everything depends upon the 
promptness with which it is finished. Often a piece 
of work reaches the proofreading room an hour after 
the copy reaches the compositors' hands, as it often 
occurs that a hundred or more men are put upon one 
piece of work, and a great deal of it is done at night. 
The most striking illustration of recent execution of 
hurried orders was the printing of the message of Presi- 
dent McKinley, transmitting the report of the Naval 
Court of Inquiry upon the destruction of the battleship 
Maine. The publication consisted of 298 pages of read- 
ing matter, with twenty-four full-page engravings and 
one lithograph in colors, and although the originals of 
the illustrations were not in possession of the office 
until 3 p.M.^ March 28, 1898, and the manuscript was 
not received until 6 p.m. of the same day, complete 
copies in paper covers were placed upon the desks of 
Senators and Representatives by ten o'clock the fol- 
lowing morning. 

Two other points of interest claim our attention in 
the scene before us. Notice the smokestack here at our 
feet. A mile off there to the left, but directly in line 
with this smokestack, we descry the steeple of St. Paul's 

PoalUoa 6. Map a. 



CO WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

(Lutheran) Church, at Eleventh and H Streets, where 
President Eoosevelt worships when in Washington. 
Again, two blocks in the rear and to the right of this 
church is Mount Vernon Square, where is rising the 
splendid public library which Andrew Carnegie has 
given to Washington. 

Let us turn now to another point of the compass and 
take our last view of Washington from the Monument. 
Consulting our general map of the city, we find two 
red lines spreading eastward from the Monument and 
having the figure 7 at the end of each. We are to view 
the portion of Washington included between these lines. 

Position 7. From Washington Monument east, 

over Agricultural Grounds to the Capitol, 

Wasliingtonf U.S.A. 

We are now looking practically east from the Monu- 
ment, and again an interesting and inspiring section 
of the city is spread before us. Directly in front of us, 
in the order named, are the grounds and buildings of 
the Agricultural Department, the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution and the National and Medical Museums (see 
Map), while over there to the left is the Capitol, with 
the Library of Congress in the rear. Hidden from 
view on our left is the White House, and behind us and 
on our right is the Potomac. There is much to interest 
the visitor beneath the roof of the Agricultural Building, 
the nearest building down on our right — there, among 
other things, one can see silk in all stages of develop- 
ment, from silk worms to a piece of silk goods; but a 
more unusual story is bound up in the Smithsonian 
Institution just beyond it. 

James Smithson was the natural son of Sir Hugh' 
Smithson, first Duke of Northumberland. He was 



PosMoas 6, 7. Map 2. 



THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



61 



educated at Oxford, where he took a degree in 1786, but 
after his graduation he does not appear to have had any 
fixed or permanent residence, living at lodgings in 
London, and occasionally staying a year or two at a 
time in cities on the Continent. He died in Genoa in 
June, 1829. It came out after his death that he had 
left the handsome fortune which the generosity of the 
Duke of Northumberland, enhanced by his own retired 
and simple habits, had enabled him to accumulate to 
his nephew for life, and after the latter's decease to his 
surviving children ; but in the event of the nephew dying 
without issue, then the whole of the property was " left 
to the United States for the purpose of founding an 
institution at Washington, to be called the Smithsonian 
Institution, for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 
among men." 

Smithson's nephew dying without heirs in 1835, the 
property reverted to the United States, and in Sep- 
tember, 1838, after a suit in chancery, there was paid 
into the Federal treasury upward of half a million dol- 
lars. The disposition of the bequest was before Con- 
gress for several years, but in August, 1846, at which 
time the available funds had increased to $750,000, the 
Smithsonian Institution was founded ; an act was passed 
directing the formation of a library, a museum, to which 
were transferred the collections belonging to the Gov- 
ernment, and a gallery of art, while to a board of regents 
was left the power of adopting such other parts of an 
organization as they might deem best suited to pro- 
mote the objects of the bequest. The corner-stone of 
the building down there among the trees was laid in 
May, 1847, and the end of a decade brought its com- 
pletion. The square of land upon which it stands was 
set aside and especially reserved for the purpose by the 
Government, and to-day, with the natural growth of 

Positloar. Map 2. 



02 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

trees and shrubbery, it has become, as we can see, one 
of the most attractive parks in Washington. 

Joseph Henry was chosen first executive officer of the 
Institution, and under his wise management and that 
of his successors it has developed with the years into 
one of the most important scientific centres of the world. 
Its objects are to assist men of science in prosecuting 
original research and to publish the result of researches 
in a series of volumes, a copy of them being presented 
to every first-class library in the world. The Institu- 
tion maintains an immense correspondence, and its in- 
influence and active aid reach investigators in every 
land. No other institution is more in touch with the 
vital interests of the country and its high development, 
and nobly does it redeem the promise once made by its 
founder that his name " should live in the memory of 
men when the titles of his ancestors, the Northumber- 
lands and Percys, were extinct and forgotten." 

The National Museum, which we see in the rear of 
the Smithsonian, should have a secure place in the af- 
fections of every patriotic American. It now contains 
more than three million objects, and most of them have 
a direct and vital bearing upon our national history and 
development. Among these are personal relics and 
memorials of most of our Presidents, and of scores of 
other famous men who have played memorable parts 
in the history of the country. Could we pay a visit to 
it, we should see, among other things, the tent used by 
Washington during the Eevolution and the uniform he 
wore as commander-in-chief on the occasion of his re- 
signing his commission at Annapolis. There also we 
should have a chance to study more than one piquant 
reminder of the great exploring expeditions of Wilkes 
to the Pacific and of Perry to Japan. The National 
Museum, you will be interested to know, is under the 

Poaltloa 7. Map 2. 



THE ARMY MEDICAL, MUSEUM 63 

direction of the Smithsonian, but, unlike the Smith- 
sonian, is supported by Government appropriations. 

Gazing still farther afield, we descry the roof of the 
Army Medical Museum, on a line with and in the rear 
of the National Museum, one of the most interesting, 
though, proba])ly, the one by strangers most seldom 
visited of the national institutions in Washington. 
The Medical Museum had its origin in the collections 
of pathological specimens which, to the number of 
several thousand accumulated in the Surgeon-General's 
office during the Civil War. Since then this collection 
has grown to be one of the most unique, and, in some 
respects, most important in the world, including an 
immense number of subjects which illustrate various 
parts of the human body as affected by wounds and 
disease. Should we visit it we should find one case 
filled with specimens which exhibit bullets embedded 
in and split upon the bones of the cranium. There is 
one, for instance, where a conical bullet split in two 
upon entering the head at the temple, the one-half 
going inside and causing instant death, while the other 
piece stuck in tlie flesh of the face outside. On another 
specimen a minnie bullet may be observed astride on 
the bones of the nose, it having split half through only 
upon entering the head. But perhaps the most re- 
markable case is that of a would-be suicide, whose head 
(after he died a natural death) is preserved here. The 
subject in question fired a pistol in his mouth, but owing 
to the smallness of the charge of powder, or from some 
other cause, the ball did not penetrate the head, but, 
after severing the jugular vein, remained firmly em- 
bedded in some of the bones of the head, where it acted 
as a valve, or stopper, to the blood which escaped from 
the wounded artery. Under ordinary circumstances, 
the subject would have died in a few minutes from 

Position 7. Map 2. 



64 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

internal haemorrhage, and his purpose would have been 
accomplished, but as it was the bullet destined to be his 
death saved his life, and he lived seventeen years after- 
ward to mourn his folly. I need not add, after what 
I have told you, that the Medical Museum is not a 
cheerful place. Indeed, only people blessed with stout 
nerves should visit it. 

A block in the rear of the Medical Museum we see 
the building of the United States Fish Commission, 
whose duties it is to restock with useful fishes the waters 
of our rivers and lakes, and of the ocean, and whose 
labors cover every portion of the United States. The 
thoroughfare which flanks on the south the buildings 
we have been studying is B Street, and the light-faced 
structure we descry to the right of it (see Map), on a 
line with the Capitol, is the office of the Coast and 
Geodetic Survey, whose corps of civilian engineers, along 
with a certain number of officers and men detailed from 
the Navy, are constantly at work surveying and re- 
surveying the harbors, bays and rivers of our thousands 
of miles of sea-coast. In the distance to our right, in- 
distinguishable from here, is the Congressional Ceme- 
terj, on the bank of the Anacostia — a necropolis of men 
who made their mark in our history when the last cen- 
tury was young. Close to each other in this famous 
city of the silent are the monuments which cover the 
dust of George Clinton and Elbridge Gerry, both of 
whom died while holding the office of Vice-President. 

Among the cabinet ministers of other days interred 
there are : A. P. Upshur, Secretary of State under Tyler, 
who met a violent death on the Potomac ; John Forsyth, 
who held the same office under Jackson and Van Buren. 
and William Wirt, for ten years one of the ablest at- 
torneys-general the country ever had, and whose re- 
markable speech at the Aaron Burr trial on " Who is 

PositioaT. Map 2. 



THE CONGRESSIONAL CEMETERY 65 

Blennerhasset ? " is one of the standard prose pieces of 
forensic literature in the public schools and colleges 
of to-day. Uriah Tracy, a United States Senator from 
Connecticut ; Cilley, who was killed by Graves in a duel, 
and scores of other members of Congress sleep their 
last sleep there. Two major-generals of the United 
States Army (Macomb and Brown), both of whom were 
commanders-in-chief in their day, are buried there. A 
famous Choctaw Indian chief, Push-ma-ta-ha, has a 
monument over him which tells the looker-on that 
among his last words were, " Let the big guns be fired 
over me." Somebody wanted to bury Thaddeus Stevens 
in this cemetery and have Congress raise a monument 
over his remains, but the grim old Commoner said no — 
" Bury me in the colored cemetery in Lancaster. As T 
never made any distinction on account of color when 
living, I do not want to lie in a place where such dis- 
tinction is made after death." 

The long, low, shed-like structure down among the 
trees on the left is the Baltimore and Potomac and 
Pennsylvania E. E. Station. Oil the opposite side of 
the street which runs along the north side of the Mall 
and a few rods this side of the station we see a corner 
of the famous old Centre Market. A couple of blocks 
beyond the Market, though indistinctly seen from here, 
is the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church where 
President McKinley came with great regularity each 
Sunday for worship. 

In the distance we see the hills of Maryland, which 
bound Washington on the ea.st. Twenty-five miles be- 
yond those hills is Annapolis, on the shore of Chesapeake 
Bay. 

But again and again as we gaze upon this scene before 
us the eye travels back to the noble Capitol, with its 

Position 7. Map 2. 



06 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

towering dome and its spreading wings. We are look- 
ing full against the western face of the Capitol here, 
with the Senate wing on the north and the House wing 
on the south. Let us leave the Monument and go down 
near that majestic structure, the legislative and judi- 
cial centre of our nation. Turn again to the general 
map of Washington and note the two red lines with 
the figure 8 at the end of each which spread out to 
the south and west from the northeast corner of the 
Capitol grounds. These lines may be found also on 
Map No. 3. Our next position is to be at the apex of 
these lines. Evidently we shall then be looking at the 
east front of the Capitol. 

Position 8. U. S. Capitol from the northeastf — 

Most Beautiful Buildinff in AmericUf 

Washington, U.S.A. 

And this is the Capitol, the most stately home ever 
provided for the lawmakers of a free people. Seen 
close at hand in the morning simlight, we can now en- 
joy to the full the majesty, grace and beauty which give 
it a place among the noblest architectural objects in the 
world. You will also note that it faces the east, for in 
that quarter the projectors of Washington assumed that 
the city would grow, whereby hangs an interesting story 
of the day of first things. The owner of most of the 
land now covered by the eastern portion of Washington 
was Daniel Carroll, who was also one of three com- 
missioners appointed in 1791 to have entire charge of 
the laying out of the district and the erection of the 
necessary public buildings. This gentleman was so firm 
a believer in the future greatness of the Federal city 
that when Stephen Girard offered him $200,000 for a 
portion of his estate he refused the offer, demanding 
five times that sum. Carroll's greed, however, soon 

PositloaS. Map 2, 3. 



ARCHITECTS OF THE CAPITOL 67 

wrought his undoing; the high price placed upon the 
lots held by him compelled many who wished latid for 
the erection of houses and business structures to settle 
in the northern and western parts of the city, and the 
tide of population turning permanently to the north 
and west decided the fate of the eastern quarter. Thus 
Carroll's dream of great wealth came to a luckless end- 
ing. All that he could leave his heirs when he died 
was a heavily encumbered estate, and so late as 1873 
six acres of the Carroll tract, upon which his descen- 
dants, during a period of eighty years had paid $16,000 
in taxes — this in the hope of a profitable sale — was 
finally sold for $3,600, And now you know why, though 
it faces the east, the Capitol is usually approached from 
the west. 

The Capitol's apparent unity of design gives one the 
impression that it is the work of a single master mind. 
As a matter of fact, it is in its present form the product 
of various hands, for it has been a gradual growth like 
the nation of which it is the legislative centre. The 
oldest portion of the building before us is the one sur- 
mounted by the dome. It was designed by William 
Thornton and completed during the first decade of the 
last century. After the partial destruction of the Capi- 
tol by the British in 1814 Benjamin H. Latrobe, one of 
the leading architects of his time, was employed to 
reconstruct it. Latrobe's services covered a period of 
less than three years, but to him belongs the honor of 
having planned, built and rebuilt the old south wing 
over there to the left, of having rebuilt the old north 
wing which peers at us from the hither side of the dome, 
and of having designed the rotunda and the present 
centre structure. When Latrobe resigned in 1817, he 
was succeeded in charge of the Capitol by Charles Bul- 
finch, an eminent architect of Boston, whose dome, 

PoMltloa 8. MapM 2, 3. 



68 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

which was much higher than the one proposed by La- 
trobe, has since been replaced by the still loftier one 
which towers before us now. The execution of the 
rotunda designed by Latrobe was the work of his suc- 
cessor, whose skill was also conspicuously shown in his 
arrangement to remedy a mistake in the location of the 
building. Could we go around to the west front of the 
Capitol, we should see that those who first wrought upon 
it placed it too far west, so as to overhang the brow of 
the hill upon which we are standing instead of resting 
upon its level summit. The western front thus exhibit- 
ing a story lower than the one we are facing, Bulfinch 
covered this exposed basement with the semi-circular 
glacis and sloping terraces, which we shall see by and 
by and which render the western approach grand and 
striking in the highest degree. 

Bulfinch completed his labors in 1830, and until 1851 
the Capitol remained unchanged. Then Congress au- 
thorized the alterations and additions which gave it its 
present size and form. The growing membership of 
the House and Senate having made an enlargement of 
the structure necessary, it was decided to build north 
and south wings, and Thomas W. Walter, a distin- 
guished architect of Philadelphia, who had designed 
Girard College and other buildings, was selected to 
supervise the work. The design prepared by Walter, as 
I have told you in " The Story of Washington," pro- 
vided for a white marble addition at each end of the 
old building, with porticoes proportioned to those of 
the centre structure, and for a new iron dome in place 
of the old brick and wooden one. The making of these 
changes and additions covered a period of fourteen years, 
but it gave us, as 3'ou can see, a Capitol that, with all 
its minor faults, is a structure worthy of the republic. 

The building before us covers an area of a little more 



Position 8. Maps 2, 3. 



SCULPTURE OF THE CAPITOL 69 

than three and a half acres, and it has a total length 
of 751 feet, and a width of 350 feet, while its dome, 
springing, as you see, from a peristyle of fluted Corin- 
thian columns, towers 307-| feet above the esplanade 
from which we behold it. The Statue of Freedom which 
tops the dome was designed by Thomas Crawford, a 
famous sculptor of the early days. It looks little 
more than life size, but in reality is nineteen and a half 
feet high. The sculptured group which we see on the 
tympanum of the central portico, designed by John 
Quincy Adams and sculptured by Persico, represents 
the Genius of America. America stands in the centre, 
with the eagle at her feet, while her shield, inscribed 
with the legend U. S. A., rests upon an altar whereon 
is graven the eloquent date, July 4, 177G. Hope stands 
beside her, and on her other hand is Justice, holding the 
scroll of the Constitution inscribed with the date of its 
adoption. Note the two colossal groups in marble on 
the portico of the rotunda. One designed by Persico 
represents the discovery, and the other, by Greenough, 
the settlement of America. Turn with me now to the 
marble group in the tympanum of the Senate portico 
over there to our right. The group has for its subject 
the development of America and the decadence of the 
Indian race. You will see that in the centre stands 
America, kissed by the rising sun, bestowing the meed 
of worthy service upon Washington. Commerce, Educa- 
tion, Mechanics and Agriculture are on her right, and 
on her left the Pioneer, the Hunter, a dejected chief- 
tain and an Indian mother with her babe, mourning 
beside a grave. 

The long flights of steps lead to the principal story 
of the Capitol, a plan of which is given on our Map 
No. 3. A study of this plan shows us that the Senate 
Chamber is situated in the centre of this north wing. 



Posltioa 8. Maps 2, 3. 



70 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

nearest us on the right. The Supreme Court sits in a 
room — the old Senate Chamber — just this side of the 
central portico. The taller windows with heavy cornices 
above them open into the Supreme Court Chamber. Be- 
hind the windows on the same floor just beyond the 
central portico is the old Hall of Kepresentatives, now 
Statuary Hall, while the Hall of Eepresentatives is on 
the same floor in the centre of the South Wing beyond. 

Not only does every Congressman and Senator and 
Supreme Court Judge come to this noble pile before us, 
but also every duly elected President since the elder 
Adams has come here to take the oath of office; and 
rare good fortune makes it possible for us to join as 
eye-witnesses in one of these historic spectacles. Turn 
to Map No. 3, " A Plan of the Capitol," and search out 
the two red lines, with the figure 9 at the end of each, 
which spread westward from a point in the eastern por- 
tion of the Capitol Grounds. We are to stand next at 
the apex of these lines, and behold President McKinley 
delivering his inaugural address on March 4, 1897. 
Thus events passed into history shall come back into life 
again. 

Position 9, President McKinley Delivering Sis 

First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1897' 

Washington, U.S.A. 

Human affair boasts no more solemn and moving 
spectacle than the one spread before us — the chosen 
ruler of millions of freemen delivering his first message 
to his people. Only on this side of the western ocean 
is such a pageant possible, and as we study its impres- 
sive details — the President, with bared head and uplifted 
liand, and the silent, listening throng — our thoughts 
travel back to another memorable scene enacted on this 



Positions 8, 9. Map 3. 



Lincoln's last inauguration 71 

very spot, the delivery of the last inaugural address of 
Abraham Lincoln on March 4, 1865. No doubt many 
of those now grouped about us were witnesses of the 
earlier scene. We are told that just as Lincoln, tall 
and gaunt among the group about him, advanced to 
begin his address from the portico over there to our 
left the sun emerged from behind obscuring clouds, and 
for a time flooded the spectacle with glory and with 
light. The address was received in profound silence, 
and there were moist eyes and tearful cheeks in the 
listening throng when the President, in closing, pro- 
nounced the noble words, " With malice towards nonej 
with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God 
gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the 
work we are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds ; to care 
for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his 
widows and orphans; to do all which may achieve a 
just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all 
nations." After the cheers which greeted this conclu- 
sion had died away, the oath was administered by the 
chief justice. Then a salvo of artillery burst upon the 
air, and the President, having made his way to his 
carriage, was escorted back to the White House by a 
great procession. The records tell us that there was 
the usual reception at the White House that evening, 
and, later on, the traditional inauguration ball. " But 
chiefly memorable in the mind of those who saw that 
second inauguration," writes ISToah Brooks," must still 
remain the tall, pathetic melancholy figure of the man 
who, then inducted into office in the midst of the glad 
acclaim of thousands of people, and illumined by the 
deceptive brilliancy of a March sunburst, was already 
standing in the shadow of death." 

The taking of the oath of office by an incoming Presi- 



Posltloa 9. Map 3. 



TXJ WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPK 

(lent sometimes follows, but more often precedes, the 
delivery of his inaugural address. Let us draw a little 
nearer to the portico of the rotunda, and witness at 
close hand the consummation of the august ceremony 
of inauguration. Turning again to our Map No. 3 of 
the Capitol, you will observe two short red lines, which 
branch from the figure 10 in a circle, a point much 
nearer the Capitol than our present position. We are 
to stand now at the base of those lines, and witness 
Chief Justice Fuller administer the oath of office to 
President McKinley on March 4, 1901. 

Position 10. The Supreme 3Iotnent, Chief tTustice 

Fuller Adininistering the Oath of Office to 

President McKinley, MarcJi 4, 1901. 

Note first that the centre of the scene before us is a 
temporary pavilion erected near the north side of the 
east portico. It shelters, as you will see, a memorable 
group. On our left is the white-haired chief justice, 
with hand uplifted in the act of delivering the oath ; 
directly in front of us stands President McKinley, with 
right hand on the open Bible, and holding in his left 
hand the manuscript of the inaugural address which he 
is soon to deliver to the waiting throng, while at his 
right stands the man whom an assassin's bullet is to 
make his successor — Vice-President Eoosevelt. 

Again, as a few moments ago, our mind goes baclv 
to similar scenes enacted in earlier years on this very 
spot. The east portico was first used for these cere- 
monies when President Jackson took office on March 4, 
1829. Ten thousand people gathered here on that day; 
a ship's cable had to be stretched across the steps of 
the portico to keep back the army of eager sightseers; 
and it was only with difficulty that the procession which 
escorted Jackson — a band of Revolutionary veterans 

Position 10. Map 3. 



Lincoln's first inauguration 73 

formed the bodyguard — was able to reach the Capitol. 
Twelve years later another great multitude witnessed 
the inauguration of the elder Harrison on this spot. It 
was a raw March day, with a chill wind blowing, and 
Harrison, who had come here on a spirited white horse, 
attended by veterans who had fought under him in the 
second war with England, stood bareheaded for an hour 
while delivering his long inaugural address, thus sowing 
the seeds of the disease which later caused his death. 

It was a critical moment in our history when Abraham 
Lincoln came here on March 4, 1861, to take the oath 
of office. The morning of that eventful day broke clear 
and cloudless, and at an early hour a great multitude 
filled both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue and the open 
space whereon we are standing. The Southern States 
were already in rebellion, and there was evidence of the 
existence of a plot for the armed seizure of the capital 
during the inauguration. Accordingly, unobtrusive yet 
effective steps were taken to quell any attempt at vio- 
lence and discord. Platoons of soldiers were stationed 
at intervals along the avenue, and groups of riflemen 
posted on the adjacent roof-tops. Few knew, moreover, 
that soldiers lined the entire length of the improvised 
board tunnel through which Lincoln was to pass into 
the Capitol; that squads of riflemen were in each wing; 
that half a hundred armed men were secreted under 
the platform from which the President-elect was to 
speak, and that there were batteries of artillery in the 
streets to the right and left and rear of us, while a ring 
of volunteers encircled the waiting crowd. 

A few minutes before the noon hour President 
Buchanan arrived at Willard's Hotel to escort his suc- 
cessor to the Capitol. Lincoln came out and entered 
the Presidential carriage. Then a company of sappers 
and miners of the regular army formed in a hollow 

Position 10. Map 3, 



74 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

square about him, and moved down the avenue, followed 
by a few companies of uniformed volunteers. The 
Capitol reached, Lincoln entered the building arm in 
arm with Buchanan, and a few minutes later the two 
appeared upon the portico in front of us attended by the 
justices of the Supreme Court, Senators, Eepresenta- 
tives, officers of the army and navy and the family of the 
President-elect. Accident, just before the ceremony 
began, formed an historic group. On one side was 
Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln's defeated rival for the 
presidency, holding Lincoln's hat. On the other side 
stood Chief Justice Taney, author of the Dred 
Scott decision, and close to the latter President 
Buchanan. To the front and centre stood the Presi- 
dent-elect, thus grouping the principal characters in 
the most momentous era of American history. Senator 
Baker, of Oregon, briefly introduced Lincoln, who, hav- 
ing unrolled his manuscript, stepped forward, and in 
a clear, firm voice, every word being heard by the most 
distant member of the listening throng, read his re- 
markable inaugural address. The people broke into 
cheers at the touching words with which it closed, and 
Lincoln, turning to the justices of the Supreme Court 
on his left, said, " I am now ready to take the oath 
prescribed by the Constitution." Chief Justice Taney 
administered the oath, Lincoln saluting the extended 
Bible with his lips, and the ceremony was at an end. 

It is time, however, for us to visit the interior of 
the great building which has been the centre of so 
much history. Turn to Map No. 3 of the Capitol 
again, and note the two red lines with the figure 11 
at the end of each, which spread out from the south- 
western corner of the Hall of Representatives. We are 
to enter the Capitol through the House portico, and 



Positloa to. Map 3. 



hay's eulogy on MCKINLEY 75 

look down upon the Hall of Eepresentatives from the 
southwest gallery. 

Position It. A Touching Tribute to McKinley^s 

Memory, — Secretary Hay's Eulogy in tJie 

House of Mejiresentatives, 

Washington^ U.S.A. 

We are standing now in a legislative chamber un- 
surpassed in the world, and again we are witnesses of 
a historic scene. There at the Speaker's desk of white 
marble, in the centre of the south side of the hall, 
stands Secretary of State John Hay, delivering his 
noble eulogy on President McKinley. Around and in 
front of him are grouped most of the men most eminent 
in public life. The justices of the Supreme Court, 
beginning with Chief Justice Fuller oH the right, oc- 
cupy the seats directly in front of the orator, and across 
the aisle from them, but nearer to us we descry Presi- 
dent Eoosevelt, with Prince Henry of Prussia by his 
side. Immediately back of the Supreme Court justices 
are the ambassadors and representatives of other na- 
tions, and still farther back is the Senate. The House 
occupies the seats just below us. Beyond the speaker 
we see General Miles, made conspicuous by his military 
sash, with many other officers of the army and navy. 
On this side of the speaker, and directly in front of us, 
Secretary of War Eoot listens intently to his associate's 
praises of their former chief. There are a hundred 
men of distinction and renown in the throng before 
us, and there is food for pride in the thought that the 
man whose memory they have assembled to honor was 
worthy of all honor. 

Could we enter this hall in which we are standing 
when the House was in session we should find it a busy 
and noisy place. I must tell you, however, that all 

Position It. Map 3. 



76 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

of the effective work of Congress is done by its various 
committees, and the utterances of Senators and Eepre- 
sentatives on the floor of their respective chambers are 
in the main for political effect on their constituencies. 
Legislation is based on bills, resolutions and reports, 
and these run a curious gauntlet in their appropriate 
committees. When a piece of legislation in either of 
these forms has reached a determination in committee, 
the act of disposing of it b}^ formal vote in' either body 
of Congress is really a legal fiction, by which the deci- 
sion of a committee is made the decision of the great 
assembly, and the matter becomes the law of the land, 
is killed outright, or is hung up indefinitely. It would 
l)e physically impossible for either house of Congress 
to consider a tenth of the bills introduced into it ; hence 
its members are divided into committees, which do the 
considering for the whole body, and whatever a com- 
mittee decides on is generally ratified by the body by 
formal vote. The committees are classifie'd as Standing, 
or those appointed regularly by each Congress; Select, 
or such as may be required for special work, and which 
are liable to change with each Congress; and joint, 
which are appointed by each body to consider matters 
simultaneously. In the Senate, all committees are 
appointed by the President of that body; in the House, 
liy the Speaker; and in each body the majority of mem- 
bers are appointed from the dominant political party. 
An old member is always assigned to an important com- 
mittee; a young one, to a minor; and in general the 
profession or occupation of a member determines on 
which committee he shall serve. Nearly all committees 
are composed of an odd number of members, and in 
the case of the most important ones, several of their 
members, who retain their seats in either house of 
Congress, are continued from one house to another. 

Position II. Map 3. 



THE COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS 77 

The character of a bill or resolution introduced into 
Congress determines the committee to whom it shall 
be referred for consideration. Each House has certain 
inherent rights in the matter of handling bills. The 
Constitution vests in the House the sole right of first 
receiving and considering every bill for raising public 
revenue; but the same instrument gives the Senate the 
right to propose amendments to such House bill, with 
which the House may or may not concur, as it deems 
most judicious. Hence, the House Committee on Ways 
and Means is one of the most important of the sub- 
ordinate bodies. The most important Senate Com- 
mittees are those on Foreign Eelations, Appropriations, 
Commerce, Finance, Judiciary, Pensions, Post-offices, 
and Post Roads, Inter-State Commerce, Coast Defences, 
Eailroads and Privileges and Elections; and the most 
important of the House Committees: Ways and Means, 
Foreign Affairs, Judiciary, Banking and Currency, 
Coinage, Weights and Measures, Patents, Private Land 
Claims, War Claims, . the Territories, Revision of the 
Laws and Reform in the Civil Service, Both branches 
of Congress, you will see, have committees with similar 
functions; others of these are those on Military and 
Naval Affairs, Agriculture, Appropriations, Education, 
Manufactures and Fisheries. 

The hall in which we now are has been since 1863 
the meeting place of the House of Representatives, and 
here James G. Blaine, Roscoe Conkling, James A. Gar- 
field, Samuel J. Randall, William McKinley and 
Thomas B. Reed did the work and won the fame which 
give them a place among the nation's noble dead. Be- 
fore 18G3 the House held its sessions in what is now 
the National Statuary Hall. Should we pass up that 
central isle in front of the Speaker's desk we should 
find a passage-way leading directly to that old Repre- 

PoMltloall. Map 3. 



78 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

sentative Hall. Turning again to the Plan of the 
Principal Story of the Capitol, we easily find this pas- 
sage leading from the present Hall of Representatives 
to Statuary Hall. Should we traverse this passage we 
should find ourselves in the historic room, designed by 
Latrobe after a Greek theatre, where Madison was in- 
augurated President in 1809 and again in 1813, where 
Monroe was inaugurated for his second term in 1821 
and where Millard Fillmore took the oath of office as 
President on July 10, 1850, following the death of 
President Taylor. That is the hall in which Henry 
Clay presided as Speaker of the House in the old days. 
There occurred the stormy debates incident to the War 
of 1812 and the war with Mexico and the preliminary 
struggle over the vexed question of slavery. There 
Daniel Webster, Eichard Henry Wilde, author of " My 
Life is Like the Summer Rose," and later Abraham 
Lincoln sat as obscure Congressmen, each before the 
day of his meridian fame. There John Quincy Adams 
was chosen President in 1825 over Andrew Jackson 
and William H. Crawford, when the election was thrown 
into the House of Representatives, and there in 1848, 
an aged and veteran member of the House, he was 
stricken with mortal illness and carried to an adjoining 
room to die. 

Charles Dickens, who sat in the little gallery at the 
side of this chamber nearly every day during his visit 
to Washington, in 1842, gathering materials for his 
" American Notes," has left us a pen picture of it as it 
looked to his eyes. " It is a beautiful and spacious 
hall," he writes, "of semi-circular shape, supported by 
handsome pillars. One part of the gallery is appro- 
priated to the ladies, and there they sit in the front 
rows and come in and go out as at a play or concert. 
The chair is canopied, and raised considerably above 

Position n. Map 3. 



NATIONAL STATUARY HALL 79 

the floor of the house, and every member has an easy 
chair to himself, which is denounced by some people out 
of doors as a most unfortunate and injudicious ar- 
rangement, tending to long sittings and prosaic speeches. 
It is an elegant chamber to look at, but a singularly bad 
one for all purposes of hearing." An old oil sketch of 
the chamber, painted in 1823 by Samuel F. B. Morse, 
and now hanging in the Corcoran Art Gallery, cor- 
roborates Dicken's description of it to the very letter. 
It was set apart in 1864 as a National Statuary Hall — 
this at the suggestion of Justin S. Morrill, then a mem- 
ber of the House — "to which each State might send 
effigies of two of her chosen sons in marble or bronze to 
be placed permatiently here." The gracious custom thus 
set afoot met with a hearty response from most of the 
States, and now ranged around the hall are nearly two 
score statues and portrait busts of the nation's great 
ones. 

And now let us visit the Senate Chamber. Turning 
to the Plan of the Principal Story of the Capitol we 
note again that this room occupies the centre of the 
north wing, and that two red lines having the figures 
12 at the end of each radiate from a point near its 
southwest corner. We are to view the Senate chamber 
from the apex of these lines. 

Position 12. Senate Chamber, U. S. CajHtol, Scene 

of Some of the Most Famous Debates 

in American History. 

We have now traversed the entire length of the Capi- 
tol, and are standing near the southwest corner of the 
Senate chamber. It is a spacious room, almost as large 
as the House of Representatives which we left a mo- 
ment ago. Note that the seats of the Senators are 

Positions II, 12. Map 3. 



80 WASHINGTON THUOUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

arranged in concentric rows, and that the aisles radiate 
from the dais of the Vice-President's desk on the north 
side of the room. The desks which we see in front of 
the dais are those of the clerks and official reporters, 
while the door to their right and rear leads to the Vice- 
President's Room and the Senators' Reception Room. 
(See the Plan of the Principal Story of the Capitol.) 
The room of the Vice-President, who is also presiding 
officer of the Senate, contains Pcale's portrait of Wash- 
ington and a bust of Vice-President Henry Wilson, 
whose sudden death occurred in this room on November 
22, 1875. The Senators' Reception Room is popularly 
known as the Marble Room, from the fact that it is 
constructed wholly of that material. A second door, 
hidden from our view on our left, leads to the Room 
of the President. This room is set apart for the use 
of the President when he visits the Capitol, and is the 
one to which he comes in the closing hours of the ses- 
sion to sign the last bills before adjournment. 

Since 1859 the Senate has held its sessions in the 
chamber in which we are standing, and here have oc- 
curred many historic events, including the impeachment 
trial of President Andrew Johnson. The Senate is a 
much more leisurely body than the House, and could 
we visit this chamber at another time we should find 
it very sparsely populated during the first minutes of 
the session, which begins precisely at noon with a prayer 
by the chaplain. One morning a few sessions ago only 
one Senator appeared in his seat at the appointed hour. 
Thereupon the President fro tern struck the desk with 
his gavel, and, with the utmost gravity, said : " The 
Senator from Massachusetts will come to order." The 
Senator obeyed and the prayer went on. During the 
presidency pro tern of Ben Wade a new and bashful 
Senator told him he desired very much to obtain the 

Position 12. Map 3. 



DEBATE IN THE SENATE 81 

floor to ask unanimous consent to pass a certain entirely 
unobjectionable bill. " Oh, bring it right up after 
prayer," said the old man. " First-rate time to pass 
your bill when no Senators are about." It is needless 
to say that the advice of the experienced old stager was 
taken, and with the desired result. It should be said 
that it was a bill to which none would have objected, 
for a more honest man never sat in a public body than 
the rugged old Senator from Ohio. 

Debate in the Senate, unlike procedure in the House, 
is entirely free. The only way debate can be cut off by" 
the majority and a vote on a measure be compelled is 
by refusing to adjourn. If the minority is a small one, 
a continuous session of two or three days and nights 
will usually bring it to terms. In such a case members 
of the majority can relieve each other and get some 
rest, still leaving enough constantly on guard to vote 
down an adjournment. If the minority weary of speech, 
there is still another method for obstructing a vote, and 
that is by alternate motions to adjourn, and to go into 
executive session. These motions are always in order 
and are not debatable, and the yeas and nays can be 
ordered on them every time by one-fifth of the Senators 
present. Eighteen members are one-fifth of the Senate 
as it is now constituted. A minority strong enough to 
keep that number always in the Senate Chamber with- 
out any being continuously deprived of rest, could revo- 
lutionize the Government. 

When the debate begins the efl^ect is to relieve Sena- 
tors from further attention to the business in hand. 
Some Senator charged with the subject commences a 
speech, to which half a dozen may listen some of the 
time. Others begin writing letters, some go to their 
committee rooms, and a still larger number repair to 
the cloak rooms behind us, to tell stories, and do a little 

Position 12. Map 3. 



82 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

log-rolling for measures of their own. The two cloak 
rooms are spacious and comfortable, well supplied with 
sofas and easy chairs. The Democrats use one of these 
and the Eepublicans the other. " There are legends of 
an olden time " when some of the old boys of the Senate 
indulged themselves in a convivial way in some of the 
committee rooms, but the better opinion now prevails 
that they are all very circumspect. In the Senate res- 
taurant, where the sale of liquors and wines is strictly 
forbidden, the sinful caterer appeals from the rules to 
the higher law, and serves whatever is called for. This 
is an improvement upon the time, not thirty years ago, 
when liquors were dispensed from a regular bar in the 
Capitol, in an out-of-the-way room, known as the " Hole 
in the Wall." 

Perhaps it will surprise you to know that the Senate 
sat at all times with closed doors during the first six 
years after our Government went into operation under 
the Constitution. Not even the members of the House 
of Eepresentatives were permitted to invade its hiding 
place. A resolution, providing that "the doors of the 
Senate chamber shall be open when the Senate is sit- 
ting in their legislative capacity, to the end that such 
of the citizens of the United States as may choose to hear 
the debates of this House may have ati opportunity of 
so doing," was voted down April 30, 1790, just one year 
after Washington's first inauguration, and the same 
proposition was rejected at the two following sessions. 
On the 18th of April, 1792, some bold and venturesome 
Senator made a motion to admit the members of the 
House of Eepresentatives to attend the debates of the 
Senate when sitting in its legislative capacity. It re- 
ceived but six affirmative votes against sixteen in the 
negative. On the 9th of December, 1795, secrecy was 
abolished except in cases where specially ordered. All 

Position 12. Map 3. 



THE SENATE IN SECRET SESSION 83 

nominations to office subject to confirmation by the Sen- 
ate are still considered in executive or secret session. 
A motion to go into executive session is always in order, 
and when such a motion is carried there is a quick 
clearing of outsiders from the galleries in front and 
to tlie right of us. There is a great deal of popular 
curiosity as to what occurs in the secret sessions of the 
Senate. A former clerk of the Senate once told me that 
his observations in the executive sessions have led him to 
the opinion that the average man, like the average boy, 
behaves himself better before folks than he does in pri- 
vate groups. Not that anything goes on behind the 
closed doors of an unseemly character. The proceedings 
are as orderly as at other times, barring a little relaxa- 
tion in the way of moving about and smoking. But men 
do not always vote as they would under the public eye. 
Scenes from the " School for Scandal " are sometimes 
enacted by the picking to pieces of private character, and 
on the other hand unsavory reputations are sometimes 
mended by the partiality of strong personal friendship. 
Prior to 1859 the Senate held its sessions in what is 
now the Supreme Court Eoom. Turn to the Plan of 
the Principal Story of the Capitol, and note again that 
this chamber occupies the east front of what was form- 
erly the north wing, and that it is entered from the west. 
Note also the two red lines, with the figure 13 at the 
end of each, which radiate from a point near the south- 
ern wall of this chamber. Our next point of vision will 
be the apex of these lines. 

Position 13. Supretne Court Mooni in the Capitol, 

Chair of the Chief Justice before Arch, 

Washington, U.S. A, 

We are standing now in the meeting place of the 
most august of earthly tribunals — a semi-circular hall, 

PoMltlona 12, 13. Map 3. 



84 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

with low-domed ceiling, designed by Latrobe, after Greek 
models. Before us is the Bench of the Supreme Court, 
with the chairs of the Chief Justice in the centre, and 
those of the eight Associates on either side. The man- 
ner in which the Supreme Court is opened is most im- 
pressive. The judges file in slowly in their black silk 
gowns, and as they appear the crier calls out : " The 
Honorable the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices 
of the Supreme Court of the United States — Oyez, oyez, 
oyez ! All persons having business before the Honorable 
the Supreme Court of the United States are admonished 
to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is 
now sitting. God save the United States and this Hon- 
orable Court ! " The spectators all stand during this 
ceremony, and anybody who absent-mindedly or igno- 
rantly remains seated is instantly stirred up by the 
venerable negro doorkeeper. The Chief Justice takes 
his seat in the middle of the bench, and the eight Asso- 
ciate Justices range themselves on either side of him, 
taking precedence according to the number of years they 
have served, the seat of honor being on the Chief Jus- 
tice's right hand. Judge Harlan occupies it now. 

There is a singular power of attraction in the Su- 
preme Court to the stranger in Washington. Every 
day in the session the space in the room in which we are 
standing reserved for visitors is almost constantly filled. 
No matter how uninteresting the case being argued may 
be, there is entertainment for the mind in the appearance 
of the old chamber and the row of dignified men whose 
opinions count for so much in American jurisprudence. 
One who is permitted to go into the robing-room and the 
other apartments frequented by the Justices when the 
court is in session feels at once the spell of antiquity 
and dignity cast by the honorable body. This robing- 
room is an oblong apartment hidden from view on our 

Posltloa 13. Map 3. 



METHODS OF THE SUPREME COURT 85 

left. Its northern windows look out upon the open space 
formed by the junction of the old north wing of the 
Capitol with the Senate wing. The adornments of 
the room are few and unpretentious. There is a 
fireplace embellished by rich, white marble carving, 
which is a source of much favorable criticism by 
those who are permitted to inspect it, and no fewer 
than three portraits of John Marshall. The view from 
the west window of the robing room is very fine. The 
city lies at your feet, and you get a good idea of the 
plan, with the broad avenues radiating like the spokes 
of a wheel from the Capitol. Across the roofs and 
steeples you have a glimpse of Arlington away over on 
the heights beyond the river, and the shaft of the Monu- 
ment stands beautifully outlined against the sky, chal- 
lenging for the hundredth time your admiration for 
its simple majesty. From this window during the Civil 
War one could watch through a sp3^-glass the manoeuvres 
of the Confederate troops across the Potomac. 

Saturday is conference day at the Court. The judges 
meet in a large room on the floor below us to discuss 
the business of the tribunal. It is a bright, cheerful 
library, lined with law-books from floor to ceiling, and 
looks very cosy and attractive. The Chief Justice takes 
up each case in turn, and starts the discussion by asking 
the Junior Justice — that is, the Justice last appointed — 
what he thinks respecting it. General conversation on 
the subject follows, and a vote of the merits of the case 
is taken. The votes are recorded in a clasped volume 
provided with a lock, which is known as the " locked 
docket." Its contents are not revealed to anybody. If 
they got out the news might be used for speculative pur- 
poses. But the voting at conference does not finally 
decide the case. On the same night usually the Chief 
assigns all of the cases which have been thus discussed 

Positloa 13. Map 3. 



86 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

and voted on to the Associate Justices for re-examina- 
tion. He gives them out with reference to the recog- 
nized specialties of the judges. Harlan's specialty is 
constitutional law. Brown's forte is admiralty law. 
McKenna is exceptionally well informed as to land 
grants and mining. Brewer is an excellent all around 
man, with a marvelous memory for precedents. 

Each judge goes over the case assigned to him just as 
if he had never seen it before. He writes out his opinion 
respecting its merits and sends the manuscript to the 
printer. Proofs are returned to him at once, and he sends 
one of them to each of the other Justices. They cut it 
to pieces, altering it ruthlessly, correcting its style and 
diction, criticizing its law, and even changing the spell- 
ing and punctuation. There is no such thing as Su- 
preme Court courtesy. No embarrassment of etiquette 
restrains one Justice from chewing up the opinions of 
another. The eight proofs thus corrected are sent back 
to the author of the opinion. He revises the latter in the 
light of the suggestions thus received. But even now 
it is not complete. On the next Saturday it is taken 
up in conference and again criticized and amended, cut 
down or amplified. Of course, you see the document 
must eventually represent the united opinion of the 
whole bench. Once in a while, though not often, it hap- 
pens that one or more of the Judges dissent from the 
opinion of the majority, and in that case a minority 
opinion will be rendered. 

The requirements of an Associate Justice of the Su- 
preme Court, you will see, are somewhat arduous, yet the 
methodical members of the court find it possible to 
adopt a daily programme which affords them probably 
as much leisure as the average business or professional 
man manages to secure. The court convenes on the sec- 
ond Monday in October and adjourns about the middle 

PosHloa 13. Maps. 



POWER OF THE SUPREME COURT 87 

of May. The law requires that each Justice visit his 
circuit every two years, the United States being divided 
into as many circuits as there are Supreme Court Jus- 
tices. They take advantage of the summer vacation 
to comply with this regulation, and either sit on the 
bench with the judges of their circuits or hear cases 
separately. The length of the stay of each in his circuit 
is optional, but most of the Judges show a conscientious 
regard for the law. 

No other legal tribunal that ever existed has possessed 
such well nigh absolute power as is wielded by the Su- 
preme Court. It can even overthrow any law passed by 
Congress and signed by the President, if it chooses to 
discover a constitutional flaw in the measure, and from 
its decision there is no appeal. Such awe does it inspire 
that lawyers of great reputation and experience who 
come here to plead before it are often seized with fright, 
tremble, turn pale and forget their words in its presence. 
On the other hand, it sometimes happens that a country 
attorney will exhibit the utmost sangfroid in address- 
ing the august row of black gowns. Not long ago an 
advocate of this caliber was arguing a patent case before 
the court. He claimed an infringement in rights in the 
manufacture of a new style of collar button. Incident- 
ally he spoke at length and with enthusiasm on the 
varied merits of the invention. One of the justices in- 
terrupted his discourse by saying: 

" I wish to ask if, among the numerous admirable 
qualities of this collar button, one of particular and in- 
dispensable importance is embraced. In a word, if it* 
falls and rolls under the bureau can it be found again ? " 

The query was put with the utmost apparent gravity, 
and it staggered the lawyer completely, so that, after 
adding a few hesitating remarks, he closed his argument. 
Justice Brown and Justice Harlan were both convulsed 

Posltloa 13. Map 3, 



88 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

with mirth, because it happened that each one of them 
had lost a collar button that very morning. Brown's 
had rolled under the fireplace and lodged in a spot secure 
from recovery. Whether the joke had any influence in 
the decision favorable to the plaintiff which was rendered 
nobody could tell. 

A stately and beautiful pile is the Capitol to which 
we have just been making a pilgrimage, and it has an 
equally beautiful neighbor in the new Library of Con- 
gress which faces it from the southeast. Turn now to 
the General Map of Washington and note the two red 
lines, having the figure 14 at the end of each, which 
radiate east and south from the Capitol grounds. Our 
position is to be on the dome of the Capitol, from which 
point we shall look over that portion of Washington 
included between these lines. 

Position 14. The Magnificent Neiv Congressional 

Library, Most Sitacious of Book Meposi- 

torieSf Washington, U.S.A. 

We are standing now in the dome of the Capitol look- 
ing southeast. Directly before us is the Library of Con- 
gress. The tree-flanked thoroughfare in the rear is 
Pennsylvania Avenue, stretching out to the Anacostia, 
beyond which rise the Maryland hills. Hidden from 
view in our rear and on our right are the White House 
and the Potomac. The splendid structure before us, 
however, claims, for the moment, all our thought and 
admiration. It covers, as you see, come four acres, and 
in architectural detail and in the costliness and beauty of 
its finish is the gem of our national buildings. Its gilded 
dome is not a lofty one, because it was desired that the 
Capitol should remain the unrivaled centre about which 
all other architectural monuments should be held in 



Positions 13, 14. Map 2. 



THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 89 

subordination, and this was a wise decision. Eacli of 
these two great buildings here on Capitol Hill adds 
something to the impressiveness of the other. There 
is harmony in the general effect, and each maintains its 
entire individuality. 

The Library was begun in 1889, and completed in 
1897 at a cost, exclusive of site, of six million dollars. 
Its architect was Paul J. Pelz, whose design for a struc- 
ture of the Italian Renaissance order of architecture was 
selected from those submitted by a number of competi- 
tors. Many subsequent modifications of the design were 
made, but the credit is primarily and essentially due 
to Mr. Pelz. The construction of the building was in 
charge of General Thomas L. Casey, Chief of Engineers 
in the Army, and its practical superintendence was from 
the beginning assigned to Bernard R. Green, an en- 
gineer of high ability. New Hampshire granite is the 
material of the exterior, while marbles from every quar- 
ter of the globe are represented in the interior. 

The Library of Congress, like most of our national 
institutions, had a very modest beginning, and its early 
history was a checkered and unfortunate one. A valu- 
able beginning had been made in the first years of the 
last century, but the books were all burned by the 
British when in 1814 they fired the building beneath us. 
Then Congress bought Thomas Jefferson's library of 
about 7,000 volumes, and made it the nucleus for a sec- 
ond collection, which in 1851 had grown to about 55,000 
volumes. In that year came another fire, from which 
only 20,000 books were rescued. A new beginning was 
made the next year when Congress appropriated $55,000 
for purchases; and subsequent annual appropriations 
filled the breach. The building before us houses more 
than a million volumes, besides manuscripts, maps, 
charts, pieces of music, prints and law books. 

Position J4. Map 2. 



90 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

The growth of the library, now one of the great book 
collections of the world, has made several large bounds 
through special accessions such as the scientific library 
of the Smithsonian Institution; but by far the largest 
source of supply has come from the copyright law, which 
requires the deposit in the Library of Congress of two 
copies of each publication that claims protection under 
the American copyright provisions. The fact that much 
of the material thus accumulated would be worthless for 
the purposes of the Boston or Chicago public libraries, or 
for such a great reference collection as the New York 
Public Library does not have any bearing upon the 
functions of the national library here in Washington. 
It is of the utmost importance, both for present and for 
future purposes, that there should be one comprehen- 
sive collection of American books and publications of all 
kinds preserved and arranged so as to bear faithful tes- 
timony to the life, thought and work of the American 
people from year to year. The Library of Congress, 
besides its complete stores of American books, also 
preserves many newspaper files. The future student of 
any department of our national history must find the 
vast collection housed over yonder his principal source 
of knowledge. 

But it is time for us to pay a visit to the interior 
of this great hive of knowledge. We will accordingly 
descend from the Dome, cross the Capitol Grounds, and, 
climbing the stairway of the central pavilion, pass 
through great bronze doors into the central stair hall of 
the first or library floor. Turn to the General Map of 
Washington and note in the plan of the Library the 
two red lines, numbered 15, which radiate to the north- 
west and show the position we are to take and the por- 
tion of the Library we are to see. 

Position 14. Map 2. 



INTERIOR OF THE LIBRARY 91 

Position 15. Decorative Splendors of the Entrance 

Mall of the Great Congressional Library , 

Washington, U.S.A. 

We are standing now in one of the noblest entrance 
halls designed by modern hands. It has been happily 
described as " a vision of polished stone," for this splen- 
did apartment, as you will note, is lined throughout with 
fine Italian marble, while all around us rise lofty 
rounded columns, with carved capitals of Corinthian de- 
sign, supporting arches adorned with carvings of exquis- 
ite finish and delicacy. The vaulted ceiling above us rises 
seventy-two feet to the skylight, and is rich in tablets 
which bear the "names of the great masters of thought' 
of all recorded time. Each moment offers a fresh de- 
light to the eye, but, perhaps, the most striking feature 
of this hall is the grand double staircase, with its white 
marble balustrades leading up on either side to the sec- 
ond story. Let us draw a little nearer to the north 
stairway and view it at a different angle. Turning 
again to the plan of the Library on Map No. 2, note the 
two red lines connected with the figure 16, which show 
approximately our next position. 

Position 16. Grand StaircasCf Library of 
Congress, Washington, U.S.A. 

Mark the imposing architectural effect of the broad 
stairway, and the simple grace and beauty of the bronze 
lamp bearer which towers above us. The archway on our 
right leads into the entrance hall from which we have 
just come, and thence to the great reading-room of the 
library. The reading-room fills the central rotunda of 
the building, from which radiate bookstacks, and which 
is inclosed in a parallelogram of galleries and pavilions. 
The central reading-room has three stories, and had we 

PoMltloDM IS, 16. Map 2. 



93 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

time to visit all of them we could spend many pleasant 
and profitable hours studying the works of the painters 
and sculptors who with loving skill and labor wrought 
their adornment. Instead, however, we will go out again 
into the open air, and returning to the Capitol look 
west from the dome. 

Turn to the General Map of Washington and locate 
the two red lines which start from the Capitol and 
radiate west and northwest, each having the number 
17 at its end on the map margin. From this new posi- 
tion on the Capitol dome, we ought to be able to see 
not only the Mall but the Monument and Pennsylvania 
Avenue to the Treasury Building, the Executive 
Grounds and west over the Potomac to Virginia. 

Position 17. Front the Dome of the Capitol West, 

down Pennsyli^ania Avenue to Post-office and 

over the Mall, Washington, U.S.A. 

It is the noon hour, as we can see by the shadows cast 
by the trees at our feet. There to the left looms the 
Monument, backed by the Virginia hills; on our right 
Pennsylvania Avenue stretches to the Treasury Build- 
ing and directly beyond over the trees the White House 
is dimly seen. The Library of Congress is behind us, 
and the Pension Office and the Potomac hidden from 
view on our right and left. The cupola which we see 
rising a few blocks in the rear of Congress Hall tops 
the Pennsylvania Eailroad Station, while to the north of 
that structure — but just out of our range of vision — 
at Fourth and C streets are the First Presbyterian 
and the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal churches, 
where Grant, Cleveland, McKinley and other Presidents 
worshiped in the past. The shaded ground in front of 
us is the National Botanical Garden, and the conserva- 

Posltloas 16, 17. Map 2. 



A TALE OF THE CIVIL WAR 93 

tory, whose cupola we can see on the extreme left, con- 
tains large collections of rare plants from all parts of 
the world. North of this conservatory is the Bartholdi 
Fountain. 

The structure with the tall tower near the farther 
end of Pennsylvania Avenue is the Post-Office Building, 
and on the opposite side of the avenue and heyond the 
Post-Office Building is the new Willard's Hotel, which 
a year or two ago replaced a hostelry that was long one 
of the landmarks of Washington. It was at the earlier 
Willard's, for many years the leading hotel of the 
capital, that Presidents-elect Pierce, Buchanan and Lin- 
coln lodged when they came to Washington, and it was 
past Willard's that unnumherod regiments marched 
down over the Long Bridge and into the Civil War. 
Sight of its successor reminds me of a thrilling story 
told me hy the late Andrew G. Curtin. 

The great war Governor of Pennsylvania was in 
Washington on a December night in 1863. Eeturning 
at a late hour to Willard's Hotel, he was accosted by 
an aged woman, whose rusty garb and anxious face 
made it plain that she was poor and in distress. The 
battle of Fredericksburg had just been fought, and the 
Union killed and wounded had mounted into the thou- 
sands. The woman's only son was a private in a Penn- 
sylvania regiment, and she had not heard from him 
since the fight. So, with little more than her railway 
fare, she had come to Washington to search for him. 
Would not the Governor help her to get through the 
lines to nurse him or to carry his body home ? Governor 
Curtin heard the number of the young man's regiment 
with a sudden choking at the throat. He had come that 
day from the field of battle, and knew that it had been 
cut to pieces. There was moisture in his eyes when he 
told her that in the morning he would either see the 

Positloa 17. Map a. 



94 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

President or the Secretary of War, and get her a pass 
through the lines. 

Then he drew the old woman's arm within his own, 
escorted her to the street, hailed a cab, helped her into 
it, and, paying the cabman his fee, told him to drive his 
charge to a lodging-house where the Governor was well 
known and had sent many a destitute friend. It was 
a clear night, and, as the cab rattled away, the thought 
occurred to the Governor that a short walk might induce 
sleep. He lighted a cigar and strolled down the avenue, 
but had not gone far when he met Ben Wade and John 
Sherman homeward bound from the Capitol, where 
there had been a night session of Congress. The three 
men halted under a street lamp and entered into con- 
versation. Fredericksburg was the topic, and the Gov- 
ernor told, among other things, of the old lady in search 
of her son. He was thus engaged when a cab halted 
on the nearest corner. There was a woman inside, and 
the driver, with oaths, was demanding that she should 
leave the cab. Intuition told the Governor that the 
woman was his old lady. A few quick strides carried 
him to the side of the cab and confirmed his suspicion. 
The cabman had spent his fee for liquor, and, now, 
drunk and bewildered, was seeking to pitch his charge 
into the street. 

" You infernal rascal," roared the Governor, " what 
do you mean ? Did I not pay you to take this old lady 
to a lodging-house ? " 

Curtin's companions had come up by this time, and 
Ben Wade, sensing the situation, gave vent to a stream 
of profanity that would have done credit to a pirate 
captain. He wanted the cabman whipped and he wanted 
to help whip him. But the driver, who also looked the 
bully, noisily declared that he had never seen the Gov- 
ernor before, and would punch his head if he did not 

PoMltloatT. Map 2. 



A TALE OF THE CIVIL WAR 95 

promptly go about his business. The war of words was 
still raging when there appeared on the scene a six-foot 
soldier, who wore in his cap the tail of a buck, — the 
latter the emblem of Pennsylvania's fighting brigade, 
the Bucktails. He was promptly hailed. " Do you 
know me ? " asked the Governor. " Yes, sir. You're 
Andy Curtin," was the reply. " Do you think you can 
lick that fellow ? " and Curtin pointed to the cabman, 
who was exchanging curses with Ben Wade. " Gover- 
nor," said the Bucktail, " hold my rifle." Three minutes 
later it was all over, and the cabman looked as though he 
had encountered a Kansas cyclone. Then the soldier, at 
the Governor's request, escorted the old lady to the lodg- 
ing-house. Passes were secured for her the next day, 
and she went to the front to find her boy seriously but 
not fatally wounded, 

" Was that the end of the story ? " I asked the Gover- 
nor, when he told it to me just before his death. 

" There was a little more to it," said he, a smile 
lighting up his fine old face, " Whenever a man does 
me a good turn I like to do him one, and I felt myself 
under a lively obligation to that soldier. One of the 
first things I did when I returned home was to have an 
order issued for him to report forthwith in Harris- 
burg, — I had taken care to ascertain his name, regiment 
and company, — and when he came I gave him a lieuten- 
ant's commission. His after-career proved that I had 
made no mistake. Bravery on the field speedily brought 
him promotion, first to the rank of captain and then to 
that of major. He fell at Spottsylvania while leading 
his regiment as its lieutenant-colonel." 

It is a thousand moving and tender associations of this 
sort that endear Washington to every American ; and no 
structure within its confines is charged with a fuller 
store of glorious memories than the one whose white 

PosUioa 17. Map 2. 



96 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

roof smiles at us tlirougb yonder foliage. Let us stroll 
westward along Penns3'lvania Avenue and look at the 
White House from Lafayette Square. Turn now to Map 
No 4, " White House and Vicinity," and find the two 
red lines which radiate southward from the number 18 
in a circle in the southern side of Lafayette Square. 
From the apex of these lines we shall look to the north 
front of the White House. 

Position 18. The White House, the Historic Resi- 
dence of the Nation's Chief, North Front, 
Washington, U.S.A. 

And this is the White House, for more than a hun- 
dred years the official residence of our Presidents ! The 
Capitol is now on our left, and Georgetown on our right, 
while behind us is the fashionable section of Washington. 
The Capitol aside, the beautiful building in front of us 
is the oldest structure in Washington devoted to public 
uses. It was in March, 1793, shortly after the com- 
pletion of the survey of the new Federal city, that the 
commissioners of the district advertised for designs for 
the Capitol and for the President's House, offering in 
each instance a premium of $500 and a building lot to 
the author of the accepted design. Among the sub- 
mitted designs was one by James Hoban, a young archi- 
tect of Charleston, S. C. This design, which followed 
that of the palace of the Duke of Leinster in Dublin, 
being approved, Hoban was awarded the premium and 
engaged to superintend the construction of the man- 
sion, which was soon given the name of White House. 
Tradition has it that this name was prompted by the 
popular regard for Washington's wife, whose early home 
on the Pamunky Eiver, in Virginia, was so called. If 
will also interest you to know that Washington himself 

Position 18. Map 4. 



THE WHITE HOUSE IN EARLY DAYS 97 

selected this site for the White House and laid the 
corner-stone here on October 13, 1792, 

John Adams was the first President to occupy the 
building before us; and you can read in Mrs, Adams' 
letters how she used the unfinished East Room, the room 
on the first floor to the left of the portico, for drying 
clothes, and of the literal " housewarming " she made 
to take the dampness out of the walls, with no end of 
trouble to obtain firewood enough for the purpose. 
When the British captured Washington, in August, 
1814, the White House was still unfinished — an un- 
sightly pile standing amid ill-kept grounds, surrounded 
by a cheap paling fence. After the invaders had burned 
the Capitol and just as they were about to counter- 
march to their ships, having pillaged the house quite 
at their leisure for twenty-four hours, they brought fire 
from a beer shop and set it ablaze, and then trudged off 
quite merrily in the light of the conflagration until 
caught in the historic thunderstorm of that summer 
night, which so pelted and battered them that they 
thought it was the wrath of Heaven upon their vandal- 
ism. There is only one memento of the fire in the 
White House to-day — the picture of Washington which 
hangs in the East Eoom — once called a Gilbert Stuart, 
but now known to be the work of an English artist of 
no fame, who copied faithfully Stuart's style. The 
fraud was not discovered until some time after the 
original had been shipped to England — too late to re- 
cover it. Every visitor is told that Mrs. Madison cut 
this painting out of its frame with a pair of shears, to 
save it from the enemy when she fled from the town; 
but in her own letter describing the hasty flight, she 
says that Mr. Custis, the grandson of Mrs. Washington, 
hastened over from Arlington to rescue the precious 
portrait, and that a servant cut the outer frame with 

Position 18. Map 4. 



98 WASHINGTON THUOUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

an axe, so that the canvas could be removed, stretched 
on an inner frame. The story of the shears is a pretty 
one, but, like so many other entertaining historical 
anecdotes, is a fiction. 

There is no building in the world where, in the same 
space of time, more of history has centered than in this 
shining white mansion, with its air of stately simplicity, 
of dignity and repose, which now commands our admira- 
tion. Twenty-five Presidents have lived in it, and two 
have died in it. One went from it with a group of 
friends to be struck down by an assassin's bullet in a 
theatre, and to be carried unconscious to a death-bed in 
a strange house. One, in full midcurrent of life, sturdy 
of brain and body and glowing with patriotic purposes, 
was shot in the Baltimore and Ohio railway station, and 
brought here to languish through weeks of pain, strug- 
gling manfully with death, all the world looking on 
with a universal sympathy never before shown to mortal 
man, to be borne, as a last hope, to the seaside, and 
there to die. 

There have been marriages and merrymakings, too, 
within these walls, jovial feasts and ceremonial ban- 
quets; grave councils of state that shaped the destiny 
of the nation; secret intrigues and midnight conclaves 
that made or unmade political parties ; war councils that 
flashed forth orders, on telegraph wires, which moved 
great armies and set lines of battle in deadly front. The 
history of the White House is, in fact, a governmental 
and political history of the United States from 1800 to 
this day; it is also a history of the domestic lives, the 
ambitions, and the personal traits of twenty-five Presi- 
dents, their families and their near friends and advisers. 
This history, however, has left few traces behind in the 
way of memories or traditions in the White House. 
One cannot even learn where the elder Harrison died. 

Position 18. Map 4. 



TRADITIONS OF THE WHITE HOUSE 99 

after his brief four weeks of power, or where blulf 
Zachary Taylor breathed his last. 

The few traditions that cling to the house are incon- 
gruous mosaics of tragedy and gayety. " Here/' an 
attendant will tell you, pointing to a particular place 
in the East Eoom, " is where Lincoln lay in his coffin ; 
and here," moving a few steps away, " is where Nellie 
Grant stood when she was married to the young Eng- 
lishman, Sartoris." You are informed that at such a 
place in the Blue Eoom the President usually stands at 
receptions, and in the next breath are told that " this is 
the window where they brought President Garfield in 
after he was shot, taking him up the back stairs be- 
cause of the crowd in front." It seems as if the mem- 
ory of the two martyred Presidents were alone destined 
to haunt the White House, all otliers fading away with 
the lapse of time. Indeed, if one wants to find some 
trace of the angular and resolute personality of Jack- 
son, or of the polite and graceful Van Buron, or of that 
hardy soldier Zachary Taylor, or even of occupants as 
late as the courtly Buchanan, he will be disappointed; 
and a still more recent President — Grant — finds his 
permanent fame dependent far more upon his career 
as a general than on that as chief magistrate, and has 
left in the building he occupied for eight years few 
memories that are still fresh. 

Truth to tell, the mansion before us is an official 
hotel. The guests come and go, and when they leave 
they take with them, along with their trunks, whatever 
of personality they diffused through its stately apart- 
ments while they remained. Some have lived in the 
house in the spirit of a freehold owner, sure of undis- 
turbed possession; some, like short-term tenants, never 
feeling quite at home. Of the latter were the family 
of President Johnson, one of whose daughters said: 

PosUloa 18. Map 4. 



100 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

" We are plain people from the mountains of Tennessee, 
called here for a time by a great national calamity. We 
hope too much will not be expected of us." Whether 
proud or modest in their temper or belongings, however, 
the Presidents, when once they have surrendered the 
reins of power, soon drop back into the dim procession 
of their predecessors. One of the saddest spectacles 
connected with official life in Washington is the hasty 
packing of the effects of an outgoing President just 
before the fateful fourth of March which ends his 
power. After noon of that day the family has no more 
right here than the passing stranger on the street; and 
while the cannon are firing salvos of welcome to the 
new President, and the long procession is moving up 
Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol front, where he is 
to be inaugurated, the White House family are gather- 
ing their personal effects together and taking last looks 
at the rooms where they have been honored and courted 
for years, the delightful sense of greatness and power 
they have enjoyed so long now cut short in a single day. 

One word more as to the history of the White House 
before we pay a visit to its interior. When it was fired 
by the British in 1814 the interior only of the house 
was destroyed, the walls remaining intact. Hoban, its 
designer, restored the interior, though he did not com- 
plete it until some time after Monroe succeeded to the 
Presidency in 1817. There was no change in the ex- 
terior of the White House from that time until a year 
ago, when the changes were begun that have given it 
its present form. 

These changes included low wings to the right and 
left of the main structure, which have been added to 
furnish ample business quarters for the President and 
his staff. The additions admirably serve the purpose 
for which they were intended, yet one cannot help but 

Position 18. Map 4. 



EAST ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE 101 

feel that they have taken something from the beauty 
of the White House as our fathers knew it. 

Let us now cross the beautiful lawn in front of us, 
and, passing through the noble portico of the White 
House and the vestibule to which it gives entrance, and 
then through a smaller hall to the left of the latter 
apartment, pay a visit to the great East Eoom. 

Position 19. East Room, where Presidential Re- 
ceptions are held {North toivards Fi'ont), — 
White House, Wasliington, U.S.A. 

We are standing now near the western wall of the 
East Eoom — a spacious apartment forty feet wide and 
eighty-two feet in length, used by the President for 
public receptions. Lafayette Square is in front of us, 
the Treasury Building on our right, and in our rear the 
Monument, the Potomac and the Virginia and Maryland 
hills. As you note the noble dimensions of the room in 
which we are standing you will not be surprised when 
I tell you that it was originally intended for a banquet- 
ing hall; and that here we have a souvenir of the aris- 
tocratic notions of the Virginians and South Carolinians 
of the early days of the republic. Hoban must have been 
encouraged in his idea that a President of the United 
States would occasionally give a mighty feast, like those 
given by kings and princes and powerful noblemen in 
the Old World. Probably neither he nor Washington, 
whom he must have consulted, imagined that the room 
would be needed, and besides be much too small, for 
the miscellaneous crowd which, in another generation, 
would overflow the Mansion at public receptions. And 
how many memorable incidents have had this room for 
their setting. Weddings have occurred here and fune- 
rals without number. President Harrison's was the 



PosUloa 19. Map 4. 



102 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

first funeral to be held here. In October, 1842, the 
first wife of President Tyler was buried from this room. 
A year and five months after her death, the first week 
in March, 1844, the funerals of four victims of the 
disaster on board the Princeton by the bursting of the 
gun " Peacemaker " were held here. The fifth victim 
of distinction, Virgil Maxey, ex-Minister to the Hague, 
was not brought to the White House, but had a private 
funeral at the house of friends. The four who lay in 
state in this room were Secretary of State Abel P. Up- 
shur, Secretary of the Navy Gilmer, Commodore Ken- 
non and ex-State Senator Gardiner, of Gardiner's 
Island, N. Y., whose daughter Julia the following June 
became the wife of President Tyler. 

President Zachary Taylor died on July 9, 1850, and 
his remains lay in state several days in this room and 
were carried thence with great pomp. Thus, between 
April, 1841, and July, 1850, seven funerals were held 
in the Executive Mansion — two Presidents, one Presi- 
dent's wife and four officers and citizens of command- 
ing positions. This was the most tragic decade in the 
history of the Mansion as to the number of its dead. A 
long interregnum was now vouchsafed, until the funeral 
here of Willie Lincoln in February, 1862, followed by 
that of his father in April, 1865. 

From the hall to our left and in front of us a stair- 
way leads to the upper floor of the Mansion. A broad 
hall runs from end to end of the second story, and from 
this hall open on either hand the living and sleeping 
rooms of the President and his family. The first room 
on the south side of the eastern end of the hall, which 
is used as picture gallery, promenade and smoking-room, 
is the family sitting-room and parlor — a spacious and 
comfortable apartment. The second room beyond is the 
1)0(1 room occupied by Lincoln and Grant, and the one 

Position 19. Map 4. 



WIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS 103 

made historic by Garfield's long suffering. It will sur- 
prise you, however, to know that until a very recent 
period hospitality, save in the restricted sense of giving 
dinners, was almost an impossibility for the President, 
for the reason that the subordination of the building 
from its originally purposed use as a dwelling for the 
chief magistrate to its official use as a bureau of ap- 
pointments and a rendezvous for patronage-hunting 
politicians, left no sleeping accommodations for guests. 
There were, until the recent remodeling of the White 
House, only seven sleeping rooms in the mansion, be- 
sides those of the servants on the basement floor beneath 
us. Thus, if a President had a moderately numerous 
household, he could hardly spare for guests more than 
the big state bedroom. A President might wish to in- 
vite an embassador and his family, or a party of dis- 
tinguished travellers from abroad, to spend a few days 
at the White House, but he could not do so without 
finding lodgings elsewhere for members of his own 
household. 

The door in front of us and to the left opens into a 
corridor which extends through the central structure 
to the west wing. Three of the rooms opening off from 
this corridor to the south have taken name from the pre- 
dominant color scheme of the decoration. The Green 
Eoom adjoins the apartment in wbich we are standing, 
and beyond it are the Blue Room and the Red Room. 
The Green Room, used for a music room, contains por- 
traits of several former mistresses of the White House, 
and a study of them leads one to the belief that our 
Presidents' wives, with few exceptions, have been simple 
matrons who on their elevation to tlie first social station 
in the country have performed their duties creditably, 
with that ready adaptation to new conditions which is 
so marked a peculiarity of American women. In recent 

Poaltlott 19. Map 4. 



104 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

times there has been a mistress of the Mansion who 
taught her boys Latin and Greek and read the best of 
current literature, and another who is remembered for 
her kindly and cordial ways and earnest interest in 
charities and reforms. One has left a tradition of ele- 
gant manners; one never appeared in public, but lived 
in seclusion, devoted to domestic duties, and making 
with her own hands butter from the milk of a favorite 
cow. The Blue Eoom, which adjoins the apartment in 
which hang the portraits of many of these women, is 
used by the President as a reception-room, and the Eed 
Eoom, beyond it, is used for receptions by the ladies of 
the President's household. Opening from the room last 
named, in the southwest corner of the central structure, 
is the State Dining-room, only used when large com- 
panies are entertained at dinner. Now and then the 
room in which we are standing is made to serve as a 
banqueting hall, but most of the formal dinners given 
by the President have for their setting the State Dining- 
room. Let us traverse the corridor on our left and 
pay a visit to this apartment. 

Position 20. Dignified Beauty of the State Dining 

Room in the White House [facing west 

wall), WasJiingtonf U.S.A. 

We are standing now near the northeast corner of 
the State Dining-room and looking toward the west 
wall. This apartment in early times was called the 
" company dining-room," to distinguish it from the 
family dining-room across the hall. The long table 
on our left seats thirty-eight persons. In the middle 
sits the President, and opposite the mistress of the 
mansion. No order of precedence is observed in going 
in to dinner, or in seating the guests. Something of 
this sort was attempted in the first days, but abandoned 

Positions 19, 20. Map 4. 



SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PRESIDENT 105 

as not practicable, and perhaps also as not sensible, in 
a country with democratic institutions. 

There was a time when it was thought the duty of 
the President to invite each Senator and Eepresentative 
to dinner once a year ; but as the two Houses have grown 
in their membership this burdensome custom has fallen 
into disuse. President Johnson was the last to adhere 
to it. If a President's dinner invitations include, in 
a single season, the Senators, the Justices of the Su- 
preme Court, the members of the Cabinet, the foreign 
ministers and a sprinkling of influential members of 
the lower House and distinguished officers of the army 
and navy, he is thought to have done his duty in this 
direction with sufficient liberality. Much the best of 
White House sociability is found at informal dinners 
and lunches, at which only a few guests are present 
with the President's family, and at evenings " at home," 
for which no cards are sent out. Then there is conversa- 
tion and music, and one may meet a score of famous 
men with their wives and daughters. 

Some Presidents are remembered for the number of 
their state dinners, others for their receptions and others 
for the cordial social tone they gave to the life of the 
mansion by small entertainments, by being accessible to 
all the world, and by making people feel at home. EacH 
presidential household has modified in some degree the 
customs of the place to suit its own tastes and habits. 
Perhaps the most important innovation on long-estab- 
lished precedent was made by General Grant, who broke 
through the traditional etiquette which forbade a Presi- 
dent to make visits. Formerly the President saw the 
inside of no house but his own, and was in some sort 
a prisoner during his term of office. He could drive out 
or go to the theatre, but he could not make a social 
call or attend a reception at a friend's house. Now he 

Position 20. Map 4. 



106 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

goes to weddings and parties, makes calls and dines out 
as freely as any other citizen. Indeed, the tendency of 
White House customs is toward less formality, and more 
ease and freedom of social intercourse, rather than in 
the other direction. 

Aforetime the business quarters of the President were 
on the floor above us. Thus, the room in which Lin- 
coln and many another President performed weighty 
service is directly over the East Eoom, while the Cabinet 
Eoom of other days is over the Green Eoom. Though 
the offices of the President have now been removed to 
the new west wing, which covers the site of the con- 
servatory of an earlier day, it is possible for us to set 
time and change at naught, and, ascending to the floor 
above us, pay a visit to the Chief Executive in the room 
where formerly his Cabinet held their meetings. 

Position 21. President Roosevelt in the Cabinet 
Room, the White House, Washington, U.S.A. 

We are standing now in the presence of the President, 
but not in the historic room where Lincoln signed the 
Proclamation of Emancipation; that is on our right, 
in the southeast corner of this second story. This very 
room, however, was used by Lincoln as his office, and 
is endeared by a thousand wise and kindly acts of the 
great war President. The walls of the apartment in 
which the President greets us are hung, as you will 
note, with portraits of his predecessors, and the room 
is rich in other objects of historic interest. But we are 
most concerned for the moment with the stalwart Ameri- 
can before us, and with the duties and labors of his 
great office. It has well been said that the man who 
takes this office indentures himself to four years of the 
heaviest servitude that ever fell to the lot of any mortal, 
and that a President who should not bring to the White 

POaltlottM 20, 21. Map 4. 



LABORS OF THE PRESIDENT 107 

House a relish for drudgery, business-like habits of the 
nicest discrimination and a constitution of iron would 
be President only in name, even as regards his more 
important duties. The President as commander-in- 
chief of the army and navy is accountable to the people 
for the personnel and efficiency of both services; he is 
the supervisor of the acts of the members of the Cabi- 
net, who are the heads of the executive departments; 
with him rests the power to grant reprieves and par- 
dons; he is charged with the responsibility of our rela- 
tions with all other nations, and with few exceptions 
he must select men to fill all vacancies in the vast army 
of public officials. 

Furthermore, he must undergo the clerical drudgery 
of signing every nomination and commission ; and finally 
he must sit in judgment on all legislation, impart in- 
formation to the houses of Congress on the state of the 
Union and suggest measures necessary to the further- 
ance of the domestic and foreign policy of his adminis- 
tration. This is a long catalogue of labors for the man 
who has risen from his chair to greet us, but perhaps 
the most onerous of his duties is the reception of the 
visitors who, for one reason or anotlier, make demands 
upon his time and good nature. Persons who seek 
audience with the President are met at the door by a 
quiet, sagacious, gray-haired man, who has an instinct 
for distinguishing people of consequence from the gen- 
eral multitude. Senators, judges, governors and other 
men of note find their cards taken directly to the Presi- 
dent; persons of small account are referred to a polite 
man of color, who is the warden of the private secre- 
tary's door. Their business must be explained to the' 
secretary, and few of them ever get any nearer to the 
seat of power. The hours for callers are from ten to 
one, save on the days of regular Cabinet meetings. In 

Posltloa2l. Map 4. 



108 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

the afternoon the President sees visitors by special ap- 
pointment, and most of his evenings are filled in the 
same way — the business in ninety-nine eases out of a 
hundred concerning the disposition of offices. President 
Garfield once said that he was obliged to see an average 
of about thirty persons for every office to be filled. If 
the question was one of removal, the number was much 
greater, including the friends of the incumbent as well 
as the candidates for the place. A good story is told 
of the method adopted by President Lincoln to settle 
a post-office contest which had greatly annoyed him. 
Petition after petition had poured in upon the. weary 
President, and delegation after delegation had come to 
the White House to argue the claims of the rival aspi- 
rants. Finally, after he had been bored for an hour by 
a fresh delegation, Mr. Lincoln said to his secretary: 
" This matter has got to end somehow. Bring a pair 
of scales." The scales were brought. " Now put in all 
the petitions and letters in favor of one man, and see 
how much they weigh, and then weigh the other candi- 
date's papers." It was found that one bundle was three- 
quarters of a pound heavier than the other, " Make 
out the appointment for the man who has the heaviest 
papers," ordered the President, and it was done. 

Now, as formerly, the office of the secretary to the 
President adjoins that of his chief, whose right hand 
he is in the broadest sense of the term. The present 
office system in the White House, however, is a growth 
of recent years. Before President Johnson's time no 
records or files were kept, and there were no clerks. 
President Lincoln had two secretaries, Mr. Nicolay and 
Colonel Hay ; but the law recognized only one, the other 
being an army officer detailed for special service — any 
extra clerical work being done by clerks detailed from 
one of the departments. Now there are four rooms 

Positloa 21. Map 4. 



THE CABINET OP THE PRESIDENT 109 

occupied by the secretary to the President and his staff 
of clerks. Big ledgers of applications for office are 
posted up daily, numerous pigeon-holes are filled with 
letters and petitions, the newspapers are read and scrap- 
books made, one room is devoted to telegraph and tele- 
phone service; in short, here are all the paraphernalia 
of a busy public office. One of the files of letters would 
furnish curious reading to students of human nature. 
It is called the eccentric file, and contains the epistles 
of advice, warning and " gush " mailed to the President 
by cranks, fanatics, absurd egotists and would-be philan- 
thropists; and how numerous these peculiar people are 
only those in high station know. A President gets 
nearly two thousand letters a day, and probably not 
one-tenth of them are upon any subject that can prop- 
erly be brought to his personal notice. 

As we are now standing in the room where Cabinets 
have been meeting for so many years, it is a fitting time 
to consider for a few minutes the place they occupy in 
our national affairs. Although the Cabinet, as an ad- 
visory body, has no regularly defined or necessary place 
in our constitutional scheme, its members, as heads of 
executive departments, perform important functions in 
our governmental system. The Constitution says that 
the President " may require the opinion in writing of 
the principal officer in each of the executive departments 
upon any subject relating to the duties of their re- 
spective offices," but he is under no obligation to be 
guided by these opinions. Washington consulted the 
Cabinet officers on important matters, but the custom 
of assembling them in joint consultation as at present 
did not come into vogue until later administrations. 
The meetings of the Cabinet are secret, and no record 
is kept of their proceedings. 

The Cabinet now has an especial importance under 

PositloD 21. Map 4, 



110 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

the law from the fact that, by an Act of Congress passed 
in 1886, the duties of the Presidency may, in a certain 
contingency, devolve upon some of its members. In 
the cases in which, from whatever cause, there is no 
President or Vice-President, the members of the Cabi- 
net, in the following order, stand in line of succession: 
Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary 
of War, Attorney-General, Postmaster-General, Secre- 
tary of the Navy, Secretary of the Interior. 

The Cabinet consists of eight officers now, but it had 
only four in the early part of the Presidency of George 
Washington. At that time the Secretaries of State, 
Treasury and War and the Attorney-General composed 
the whole of the President's ministerial council. The 
Departments of State, of Treasury and of War were 
created by Congress in 1789, the first year of the Gov- 
ernment under the Constitution. Here are the dates 
at which the first officers to fill the positions comprised 
in the present Cabinet were appointed : Secretary of the 
Treasury, September 11, 1789; Secretary of War, Sep- 
tember 12, 1789 ; Secretary of State, Postmaster-General 
and Attorney-General, each September 26, 1789; Secre- 
tary of the Navy, May 21, 1798; Secretary of the Inte- 
rior, March 8, 1849; Secretary of Agriculture, Feb- 
ruary 11, 1889, and Secretary of Labor and Commerce, 
February, 1903, The office of Postmaster-General, how- 
ever, did not become a Cabinet post until 1825, and 
the Attorney-General, although a member of the Cabi- 
net from the first year of the Government, did not have 
the Department of Justice to preside over until 1870. 

The American Cabinet is responsible to the Execu- 
tive, and not to the law-making power, in this respect 
differing radically from Cabinets under the British 
Government, and retires with the President who created 
it. Most of the greatest statesmen which the country 

Poattioa2t. Map 4. 



CABINET MEMBEllS OF THE PAST 



111 



has known have served at one time or other in their 
career in the Cabinet, the greater part of them in the 
office of Secretary of State. This post, or that which 
corresponds to it, is, in the United States and most of 
the other great .nations, the most important in the 
Ministerial coimcil. Nearly all the other Cabinet posi- 
tions, however, have, on occasion, been filled by con- 
spicuous statesmen and publicists. 

There were no parties in Washington's early days in 
the Presidency, but the debates in the Constitutional 
Convention and in the State Legislatures, regarding 
certain provisions in the Constitution, revealed broad 
differences of opinion on many matters of national con- 
cern. Desiring to secure for his Cabinet the ablest men 
to be obtained, our first President selected Alexander 
Hamilton, the leading exponent of one school of poli- 
tical thought, and Thomas Jefferson, the ablest advo- 
cate of the opposing school. Hamilton was made Secre- 
tary of the Treasury and Jefferson Secretary of State. 
Those who agreed with Hamilton came to be called 
Federalists and the others Eepublicans. Washington, 
John Adams and John Marshall were among the lead- 
ing Federalists, and James Madison, James Monroe and 
Albert Gallatin were a few of the most conspicuous 
Eepublicans. The Pepublican party of Jefferson's time 
was the parent of what has been known since Jackson's 
Presidency as the Democratic party. The present Ee- 
publican party is the lineal descendant of the Federalisf 
organization through the Whig party. 

Since Washington's Presidency the custom has been 
for the Executive to select Cabinet officers in harmony 
with his views on the leading issues of national policy. 
During the past seventy years there has virtually been 
no deviation from this practice, except in the case of 
President Hayes, who chose D. M. Key, a Tennessee 

Position 21. Map 4. 



112 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

Democrat, for Postmaster-General. Key subsequently 
became a Eepublican. Lincoln intended to adopt Wash- 
ington's plan of calling a political opponent into his 
council, but was deterred by the secession movement, 
after offering unsuccessfully a Cabinet post to two 
Southern men. The scheme, though, was not a success 
in Washington's case. Jefferson, finding himself out 
of harmony with his chief and the other members of 
the Cabinet, stepped down after about foiir years of 
service, and was succeeded by Edmund Randolph, whose 
leanings were toward Federalism. Xo doubt you have 
heard the Cabinet spoken of as a graveyard of presi- 
dential aspirations, but that is not true. Of the twenty- 
five Presidents not less than seven had held Cabinet 
offices before their election. Of the thirty-six men who 
have been Secretary of State six afterward became 
President — namely, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John 
Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren and James Bu- 
chanan. However, no Secretary of the Treasury or of 
the Navy or of the Interior, and no Postmaster-General 
or Attorney-General ever became President. 

Each member of the Cabinet is a man of work, like 
his chief. Indeed, most Cabinet officers devote more 
hours of each day to hard labor than any of the sub- 
ordinates in their departments, while to the labor 
that they perform is to be added in some instances 
a vast weight of responsibility when the course to be 
pursued by a department may have much to do with 
the disturbance or continued even tenor of business. 
That there is much of anxiety to be bonie in the 
Cabinet offices is known to all who recall the pathetic 
fate of Secretaries Folger, Manning and Windom, each' 
of whom, no doubt, hastened his death by too close 
application to the business of the Treasury during 
periods of the history of that department when the 

PoaMoa21. Map 4. 



WHEN LINCOLN WAS PRESIDENT 113 

public attention was fixed upon it, and public expecta- 
tion was regarding the Secretary as an officer endowed 
with the power to restore business peace and general 
prosperity by the adoption of a poHcy. 

We are looking toward the northwest corner of this 
room. A large square room to the right, and adjoining 
this one in which we are standing, was used by Presi- 
dent Lincoln as his office during the Civil War, and 
furnished a setting for a thousand moving and tender 
incidents of that great struggle. The walls which shut 
it from us beheld an unending procession seeking audi- 
ence with the gaunt, sad-faced man who during four 
weary years bore upon his shoulders a burden greater 
than that sustained by Washington. Those seeking aid 
for themselves or for others made early discovery of 
Lincoln's kindness of heart, and of the fact that his 
sympathy went out spontaneously to all in distress. 
The best-remembered appeals to his clemency were made 
in behalf of soldiers under sentence of death for deser- 
tion, and books and newspapers, and living men as well, 
teem with anecdotes of offenders who owed their lives 
to his interposition. 

Humor and pathos were often blended in Lincoln's 
exercise of the pardoning power. Thomas Ford, Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of Ohio, coming to the White House 
on an autumn evening in 1862 to keep an appointment 
with the President, was accosted in the vestibule of the 
floor below us by a young woman, whose drawn face 
and swollen eyes bore witness to the fact that she was 
in sore trouble. Ford halted to listen to her story. It 
had to do with an orphaned brother and sister, who had 
come from Germany and settled in one of the Western 
States. The brother when the war came had entered 
the army, but, falling among evil associates, had been 
induced to desert, with the melancholy sequel — capture, 

Position 21. Map 4. 



114 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

trial and sentence to death. The sister, who was in 
domestic service, had borrowed the money for the jour- 
ney, and hastened to Washington to lay the case before 
the President. She had vainly sought for two days to 
secure an audience with him, and finally had been 
ordered away by the servants. 

" Come with me," said Ford, when she had finished, 
" and I will see what can be done," So saying, he led 
her upstairs and into the presence of Lincoln in the 
room adjoining us. " Mr. President," said he, " my 
business must wait till you have heard what this young 
woman has just told me." 

Lincoln, seating himself at his desk, listened in si- 
lence to the girl's story, and then carefully examined 
the petition for a pardon, which she handed him, and 
which bore the signature of a few persons who had 
formerly known her brother. This done, he studied 
her tear-stained face and the threadbare garb which 
spoke her poverty. 

" My child," said he kindly, " you have come here 
with no one to plead your cause. I believe you to be 
honest and truthful, and " — this with emphasis — " you 
don't wear hoops. I will spare your brother." 

And now we are to take our leave of the President, 
and descending to another apartment on the first floor 
pay our respects to his wife — the mistress of the White 
House. 

Position 22. Mrs. Theodore Moosevelt at Home in 
the White House, Washington, U.S.A. 

We find the mistress of the White House busy at her 
desk, for the life of the President's wife, like that of 
her husband, is one of very hard work. Her post though 
unofficial, is, nevertheless, a most important one, and in 
glancing down the list of Presidents the influence of 

Positions 21, 22. Map 4. 



MISTRESSES OF THE WHITE HOUSE 115 

their social surroundings in shaping the success of ad- 
ministrations and tempering tlie rancor of partisan feel- 
ing is visible at every step. The era of good feeling in 
the days of Monroe was due in large part to the admir- 
able tact of his queenly wife, while the bitterness of 
sectional hostility in Buchanan's time was disarmed by 
the assimilation of opposing political forces within the 
influence of the social circle presided over by his niece, 
Harriet Lane. Mrs. Hayes holds a conspicuous place 
among later mistresses of the ^^^lite House. A woman 
of remarkable force and attractive manners, she worked 
with and for her husband, was his counsellor and friend, 
and though she did not openly interfere in politics, no 
President's wife has exercised such power over public 
affairs. Five-and-twenty Presidents have entered the 
White House. Of the women who have accompanied 
them, some have come reluctantly, some gladly, but one 
and all have acquitted themselves with a dignity and 
a sense of fitness that gives a new meaning to the na- 
tional boast that any American girl can be a four years' 
queen. 

It is time for us to take our leave of the White 
House, but before doing so let us return for a moment 
to the second story, and, with the pillars of the great 
portico framing in the picture, look northward over 
Lafayette Square. Turn to Map No. 4 and note the 
two red lines having the figure 23 at the end of each, 
which radiate northward from the White House. These 
lines are given also on the General Map of Washington, 
The apex of these lines will be our next point of vision. 

Position 22. Map 4. 



IIG WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEPEOSCOPE 

Position 23. Charming Northern Outlook over 

Lafayette Square from the President's 

Home, Washington, U.S.A. 

We are standing now at a window cut in the north 
wall of the second story of the White House (see north 
front of the White House from Position 18) and look- 
ing out upon Lafa3^ette "Square. The Treasury Build- 
ing is on our right, the State, War and Navy Building 
on our left, and in our rear the Potomac. The spirited 
statue which holds the centre of the square in front 
of us shows General Jackson as the hero of New Or- 
leans, and it will interest you to know that it was cast 
from cannon captured in Jackson's campaigns. The 
steeple rising above the trees to the right of the statue 
is that of St. John's Church, at the corner of Sixteenth 
and H Streets, and a stone's throw from it, though hid- 
den from our view, is the German Eeformed Church, 
facing Fifteenth Street, where President Roosevelt wor- 
ships of a Sunday. Yet farther afield on our left, at 
the corner of Eighteenth Street and Connecticut Avenue, 
is the Church of the Covenant, which formerly num- 
bered President Harrison among its attendants. 

No portion of Washington is richer in human interest 
than the one before us. Hidden behind trees on our 
right, at the corner of Madison Place and H Street, is 
the long-time home of Dolly Madison, now occupied by 
the scientific Cosmos Club. This house was part of the 
estate left by Madison when he died in June, 183G. His 
widow was then too poor to occupy it, but in March, 
1837, Congress appropriated $30,000 to purchase Madi- 
son's diary of the debates and events connected with 
the framing of the Constitution, and this money, later 
supplemented by another generous appropriation for the 
purchase of the ex-President's unpublished papers, en- 

Posltioa 23. Maps 2, 4. 



MEMORIES OF DOLLY MADISON 117 

abled Mrs, Madison to live in her city house. And 
so in the fall of 1837 she gladly returned to the capital 
to renew in private life the social triumphs of her ear- 
lier years. Indeed, for more than a decade her house 
fairly rivalled the White House as a social centre. The 
same distinguished personages who on New Year's Day 
paid their respects to the President hastened across the 
square in front of us to greet Mrs. Madison with all 
good wishes; and on every Fourth of July her parlors 
were thronged. The day of her death, in July, 1849, 
at the age of seventy-eight, was one of sincere and uni- 
versal mourning in Washington. After her passing her 
house was occupied by Commodore Wilkes until the 
Civil War, when it became the headquarters of General 
McClellan. 

Hidden also from our view by the trees to the left 
of the Jackson statue is the old Decatur Mansion. This 
house, built by Latrobe in 1819, was the first private 
dwelling erected on Lafayette Square, known in those 
early days as Burns' Orchard. It is a roomy structure 
of red brick, with a pyramidal slated roof and severely 
plain front, but in the days of its first owner the gor- 
geousness of the interior fully compensated for any lack 
of outward adornment. Commodore Decatur was then 
the most widely known and admired officer in the navy, 
and the history of his life was written on the walls of 
his home, which were covered with the trophies of his 
many successes, both of war and peace. His wife, a 
famous Virginia belle, had been sought in marriage by 
Jerome Bonaparte, but on the advice of a shrewd friend, 
who predicted that Napoleon would never recognize the 
marriage, she refused him, to become in due time the 
wife of the man whom Nelson declared to be the most 
daring captain of the age. Tlio Decaturs at once be- 
came social leaders in Washington, but for only a single 

PoaiUoa 23. Maps 2, 4. 



118 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

season. On March 22, 1820, occurred the husband's 
needless, fatal meeting with Commodore Barron on the 
old duelling ground at Bladensburg, and Decatur was 
brought home to die in the house he had built less than 
a year before. Since Decatur's day the house has en- 
closed a full measure of wit and beauty, for it has rarely 
been without some famous occupant. Henry Clay lived 
there while Secretary of State under John Quincy 
Adams, and his successors in office, Martin Van Buren 
and Edward Livingston, occupied it in the same capa- 
city. From 1873 until his death, twenty years later, 
it was owned and occupied by General Edward Beale, 
who with his accomplished wife made it the centre of 
all that was best in Washington society. Beale was a 
grandson of Commodore Truxton, under whom Decatur, 
the builder of this house, had served as a midshipman. 
In the rear of the Decatur mansion, at the corner of 
Connecticut Avenue and H Street, and only five min- 
utes' walk from where we are standing, is the house 
occupied by Daniel Webster while Secretary of State, 
and within whose walls the Ashburton Treaty was dis- 
cussed and practically concluded. After Webster left it 
this house became the home of William W. Corcoran, 
whose name it still bears and who was long the foremost 
citizen of Washington in private life. The story of Cor- 
coran's career is one of the romances of the capital. A 
native of Georgetown, he began as an auctioneer, and 
later became a banker and broker. When, in 18-46, 
Congress voted $10,000,000 for the prosecution of the 
war against Mexico, the funding of the loan which 
this appropriation involved was undertaken by Cor- 
coran. Subscribers for only a part of the fund could 
be found in America, and in the end he was compelled 
to seek aid in London. There he succeeded in enlisting 
the greatest banking houses in support of a loan that 

Position 23. Maps 2, 4. 



THE PRESIDENT AND THE PUBLIC 119 

seemed perilous, but afterward rose to a high premium 
and brought large profits to all interested in it. This 
negotiation, so creditable to his courage and sagacity, 
was the beginning of Corcoran's remarkable success as 
a banker, and laid the basis of the great fortune, reck- 
oned by the millions, which in after years enabled its 
generous master to lay out and adorn Oak Hill Ceme- 
tery on the heights of Georgetown to our left, one of 
the most picturesque pieces of landscape gardening in 
the land ; to present to the Washington Orphan Asylum 
its valuable grounds; to erect and endow the Corcoran 
Art Gallery, a few blocks to our left and rear; to present 
Columbian University with a lucrative estate; to make 
liberal donations to other institutions of learning and to 
disburse in private charities, during the last of his ninety 
years of life, an amount hardly equalled in any age. 

What a long procession of all sorts and conditions of 
men and women, too, have crossed the portico below 
us to pay their respects to the President ! The latter's 
first-hand intercourse with the people has varied with 
different administrations, but a tendency toward its 
restriction has been noticeable of late years. President 
Johnson gave a public reception once a week during 
the winter season, and even in the stress and agony of 
the Civil War President Lincoln shook hands with a 
mob of two or three thousand people surging through 
the East Room beneath us often as once a fortnight. 
Now, one or two public receptions during a session of 
Congress are thought a sufficient concession to the demo- 
cratic principle. A New Year's Day reception is de- 
manded by the unbroken custom of a century. First 
the members of the diplomatic corps present themselves 
in all of the splendors of court dress; then come the 
Senators and Congressmen, officers of the army and 
navy and, last, the public in general. 

Position 23. Maps 2, 4. 



120 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

Let us descend to the lawn in front of us and watch 
the officers of the army and navy lining up for their 
annual call on the President. Turn to Map No. 4 and 
note the two red lines which radiate westward from a 
point numbered 24, just north of the White House. 
Our next point of vision will be the apex of these lines. 

Position 24:, Admiral Dewey and Officers of the 

Navy in line at President Roosevelt's New 

Year Reception, Washington, U.S.A. 

We are standing now in front of the White House, 
looking west to the State, War and Navy Building, seen 
looming up through the trees, with Lafayette Square 
on our right and the Treasury Building in our rear. 
There is more than one familiar face in the long line 
before us. At its head stand Admiral Dewey and Eear- 
Admiral Schley, heroes of the two great sea fights of 
our war with Spain. Just behind them are Captain 
Wainwright and " Fighting Bob " Evans, while Eear- 
Admiral Watson, " Able Seaman Johnny " as his 
familiars call him, gazes at us over the shoulder of the 
former, and farther down the line we see the spectacled 
face of Captain Sigsbee, whilom commander of the 
Maine. There is gold lace a-plenty in the group before 
us, but this is the first time we have noted its presence 
in or about the White House. Indeed, we have cause 
to be proud that no soldier walks his beat before its por- 
tal, as before all executive offices and palaces in other 
lands. There have been no soldiers as guardians under 
the shadow of the great columns on our right since the 
Civil War; and even then, on one fierce winter night, 
the boy in blue who was on guard was not allowed to 
maintain professional decorum. President Lincoln 
emerged from the front door on his way to the War 
Department in front of us, where in times of battle 

Position 24. Map 4. 



AN ANECDOTE OF LINCOLN 



121 



he was wont to go for the midnight despatches from the 
field. As the blast struck him he turned to the pacing 
sentry and said, " Young man, you've got a cold job 
to-night; step inside, and stand guard there." 

" My orders keep me out here," was the soldier's 
reply. 

" Yes," said the President, " but your duty can be 
performed just as well inside as out here, and you'll 
oblige me by going in.' 

" I have been stationed outside," the soldier answered, 
and resumed his beat. 

" Hold on there ! " said Mr. Lincoln, turning back 
again. " It occurs to me that I am commander-in- 
chief of the army, and I order you to go inside." 

The building to which the great war President made 
so many midnight visits aforetime occupied a portion 
of the site of the State, War and Navy Building which 
we see in the rear of the living line in front of us. We 
will stroll now to the south side of the White House 
and get an unobstructed view of this newer and larger 
structure. Turn to Map No. 4 again and search out 
the two red lines which start from figure 2 at a point 
a little south of the White House and spread north and 
west. We are to look next upon the State, War and 
Navy Building from the point from which these lines 
start. 

Position 25. State, War and Navy Building, 

where National Business of Vast Importance 

goes on, Washington, U.S.A. 

The four-storied granite structure which now com- 
mands our admiration, with its frontage of 342 and 
depth of 565 feet, its 500 rooms and two miles of marble 
halls, ranks as the largest office building in the workl. 

Positions 24, 25. Map 4. 



122 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

As an illustration of how Uncle Sam does his house- 
keeping, it will interest you to know something of its 
interior economy. It is occupied, as you know, by the 
departments of State, War and Navy, and it is man- 
aged by a commission composed of the secretaries in 
charge of those three branches of the Government ser- 
vice. They choose an executive officer from the engi- 
neer corps of the army or navy, who is appointed by 
the President on their recommendation. Congress ap- 
propriates about $160,000 a year for the management 
and maintenance of the building, which is kept some- 
what like a huge apartment house. The scale on which 
the housekeeping is done may be conceived from the 
fact that eighty charwomen are employed to do nothing 
but scrub the floors of the corridors. They work from 
4 to 6 P.M. each week day and get twenty dollars a 
month. There are eight assistant engineers, twenty- 
four firemen, ten elevator conductors and twenty labor- 
ers, who wash the windows and steps, clean the pave- 
ments and so forth. 

The three departments are split up into bureaus and 
divisions, each of which has its messenger, who takes 
care of the rooms, while the executive officer keeps the 
corridors clean and sees that the building is properly 
heated, lighted, repaired, ventilated and guarded. For 
this last purpose he employs fifty-eight watchmen, a 
captain of the watch and two lieutenants. Every part 
of the structure must be patrolled every two hours of 
the day and night, and, to ensure the performance of 
this duty, each man is required to touch a series of 
electric buttons along his line of inspection, which 
record on a pasteboard dial in the office on the first 
floor the exact minutes when they were pressed. Be- 
tween five and seven o'clock each evening they go into 
every room and draw all the window-shades down ex- 

PosltioB 2S. Map 4. 



LIBRARY OF THK STATE DEPARTMENT 133 

actly half way, so that they will look nicely from the 
street, at the same time closing all connecting doors as 
a precaution against the spread of possible fire. 

Each department in the building repairs and renews 
its own furniture from a contingent fund provided for 
that purpose, including all carpets, but the latter are 
taken up every spring, sent to be cleaned and put down 
in the autumn by the executive officer. He has the 
cleaning done by contract at two and one-half cents a 
yard. The business of cleaning carpets for the Govern- 
ment is a big affair, and the job is eagerly bid for. The 
executive officer of the State, War and Navy edifice says 
that housewives would be wise to imitate his practice 
and never take up matting until it is worn out, simply 
laying the carpets over it in winter, with a layer of 
paper between to keep them from getting dirty. This 
method makes the carpet wear longer and saves trouble. 

The War Department occupies the west wing of the 
great structure in front of us, and the Navy Depart- 
ment the east wing, while the Secretary of State and 
his subordinates have rooms in the south end of the 
second story. The library of the State Department is 
on the third floor, and, aside from the sentimental value 
attaching to the first public documents of the nation, 
contains the most valuable collection of papers in exist- 
ence upon the early political history of the United 
States. Could we visit this collection, we should find 
in it, besides the Declaration of Independence and the 
Constitution of the United States, the papers of George 
Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Alex- 
ander Hamilton, James Monroe and Benjamin Frank- 
lin. These archives arc virtually held in trust by the 
Department of State for the use of historical writers 
and students. Access to them is continually asked and 
accorded without special favor except so far as the care- 

PoMlHoa2S. Map 4. 



124 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

fulness, responsibility and good faith of the investi- 
gators are concerned. Owing to the great value of these 
papers to the people of the United States at large, it 
has been considered necessary by the department at 
times to exercise great care in their handling. 

The Declaration of Independence came in the early 
days to the Department of State from the Continental 
Congress. It was subjected early in the last century to 
a process for securing a fac-simile for a copper plate 
that caused the ink to fade and the parchment to de- 
teriorate. The process really involved taking what is now 
known as a letter-press copy from the face of the historic 
parchment itself. It was deposited on June 11, 1811, 
in the Patent Office, then a bureau of the Department 
of State, and when that office was transferred with its 
records to the Interior Department by an act of March 
3, 1849, the Declaration was placed on exhibition in a 
case in a brilliant light which caused the ink to fade 
and the parchment to decay. In March, 1877, upon 
the completion of the present fireproof building, it was 
returned to the Department of State, after having been 
on exhibition at the Centennial Exposition in Phila- 
delphia in 1876. 

It was then placed in a huge upright glass case with 
steel doors, where it was somewhat screened from the 
light, and where thousands of visitors viewed it annu- 
ally. But it was found that even this position was in- 
jurious to the parchment, and in February, 1894, it was 
taken out of the case and a facsimile of the original 
document substituted. A large, square steel case stand- 
ing near the entrance to the library now contains both 
the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution 
of the United States. These valuable papers were 
placed flat in the steel case after having been carefully 
wrapped and hermetically sealed to prevent the admit- 

PQsition 25. Map 4. 



OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE 125 

tance of air, which is almost as fatal to the parchment 
as the light was to the writing. While the full text of 
the original Declaration is legible, the signatures have, 
with few exceptions, vanished. There seems now to be 
no further danger to be apprehended for these two 
precious papers, for the steel case itself is in an iron 
hall, which precludes danger from fire, and it is care- 
fully guarded by the officials of the bureau. Strict 
orders have been issued by the Secretary of State that 
no one shall be allowed to see the original, and it is 
never touched under any circumstances. 

The windows of the office of the Secretary of State 
look down upon our present point of vantage. No of- 
ficer of the Government has more impressive apart- 
ments. The ceilings and walls are elaborately deco- 
rated, the furniture is solid and large, the pictures are 
those of former Secretaries of State, the business is more 
or less mysterious and the attendants are portentious 
with the sense of propriety that they have to carry, so 
that the clerk of smallest pay may be distinguished any- 
where among other clerks as of the State Department. 
Once in his office, the Secretary receives visitors, except 
on the Cabinet days, until two o'clock, when he shuts 
off all who do not come by appointment or on 
department business that is in the usual run. On 
Thursdays he is supposed to be accessible to diplomatic 
officers, and they are received in the diplomatic parlor 
just beyond his private office. 

Let us cross to the great structure we have been study- 
ing from without, and, ascending to the second story, 
pay a visit to this apartment, whose windows we see 
nearest the southwest corner of the second story. 

PoslUoa 25. Map 4. 



126 



WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 



Position 26, Diploinntic Room — State Depavt- 
ment for Conference ivith Representatives 
of Foreign Governments, Wash- 
ington, U.S.A. 

The splendid room, with windows looking out to the 
south over the Potomac, in which we are now stand- 
ing, is the official meeting place of the Secretary of 
State and the members of the diplomatic corps, which 
stands for a brilliant and distinctive phase of social 
life in Washington. The United States, as a rule, has 
always been fortunate in the character and attainments 
of the envoys it has received from abroad. Foreign 
nations have seen fit to send hither their most accom- 
plished diplomats, and to maintain them in the most 
generous way. 

Of all of the foreign countries with representation 
at Washington, Great Britain is the most liberal in 
compensation and other provisions for the comfort of 
those it sends here. The salary of the British Ambas- 
sador falls only a little below that of the President of 
the United States. But when the allowance for ex- 
penses is taken into account, the financial compensa- 
tions of this ambassadorship are better than those of 
the Presidenc3^ The President pays from his salary the 
cost of the state dinners he gives. The British Ambas- 
sador lives in a structure which, if not so imposing to 
view from the exterior, contains more room than the 
White House. The Embassy is the property of Great 
Britain. That country was the first to acquire ground 
in Washington and build an official residence. To the 
original structure has been added a large ball-room and 
an annex for the offices. The Embassy is occupied by 
the Ambassador rent free. 

Certainly the tendencv is not toward curtailment of 

Position 26. Map 4. 



HOME OF THE MEXICAN LEGATION 127 

the diplomatic corps. Every year adds to its numbers 
and dignity and cost. While Germany was represented 
here by a legation, a very plain building, in an un- 
fashionable part of the city, was deemed sufficient to 
maintain the dignity of the empire. But when the 
German Minister became an Ambassador the German 
Government purchased one of the finest residences on 
Highland Terrace for the Embassy. Not content with' 
that, the German Government acquired title to an ad- 
joining piece of ground and built upon it a ball-room 
of imposing dimensions. The social phase is never lost 
sight of. To dance and to dine are the A and B of 
diplomacy. 

Another nation which owns its official residence in 
Washington is Mexico. Like Great Britain, Mexico 
bought a site and built. The Mexican Legation has the 
ball-room, which is considered a sine qua non of all 
diplomatic residences. It also has what is conceded to 
be the finest appointed state dining-room of all the 
legations. This dining-room is large, and the spacious 
appearance is increased by mirrors set in the wall panels. 
Thirty-six guests sit with ease at the Mexican Minister's 
table. The table appointments even surpass those at 
the state dinners given at the White House. When the 
Mexican Legation is " set up," a great centrepiece of 
silver stands upon a mirror lake bordered with silver 
filigree, and that in turn rests upon a broad scarf of 
woven gold. The centrepiece holds flowers. Directly 
above it, from the chandelier, hang festoons of gar- 
lands of green. At the ends of the mirror lake are 
silver candelabra standing between pots of flowers. As 
he takes his seat, each guest finds in front of him a gold 
plate, which disappears with the first course. The array 
of knives, forks and spoons is imposing. It includes 
one of gold for the ices. The others are of silver. 

Position 26. Map 4, 



128 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

Ranged about each cover are cut-glass dishes for almonds 
and olives, two glasses for water and a carafe, and ten 
wine glasses, differing in size, shape and color. On a 
little china stand, with a gold monogram, is written in 
French the menu, so that the guest may know what is 
coming. With this bewildering collection of gold, sil- 
ver, glass and china, a state dinner at the Mexican Lega- 
tion opens. Dinner giving in the diplomatic corps may 
be said to have reached its highest development at the 
Mexican Minister's. 

A flagstaff is an inseparable feature of a legation. 
Whether the power owns or leases the official home of 
its representative in Washington, the flagstaff is 
promptly reared. The display of the flag is not con- 
spicuous. Above the mansion which the Chinese Min- 
ister occupies, on Columbia Heights, the black dragon 
wriggles on an ample field of yellow every day, from 
sunrise to sunset. None of the other legations displays 
the colors daily. The custom is to raise the flag on the 
notable anniversaries and holidays of the covmtry it 
represents. But the staff is always in readiness. The 
provision is more than ornamental. To all intents and 
purposes, the legation and its grounds are foreign ter- 
ritory. Scattered through Washington are these spots, 
over which the United States has no jurisdiction. This 
Government can at any time give to the representative 
of a foreign country his papers, notifying him to de- 
part. Until this is done, however, the legation is a part 
of the government it represents. It is neutral ground 
in time of war. The flag flying above carries the " right 
of asylum." Fugitives are safe there. It matters not 
if the legation be only rented property, the flag iden- 
tifies it as, for the time, a part of the foreign power. 

In time of peace the separate sovereignty of the lega- 
tion is recognized. Whatever is imported for the use 

Posltloa26. Map 4. 



PRIVILEGES OF THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS 129 

of the legation is not subject to the tariff. An attache 
calls here at the State Department and leaves word that 
certain things dutiable are on the way to this country 
for the legation. The Secretary sends a memorandum 
to the Treasury Department. The proper customs 
officers are notified, and in due course of red tape the 
legation receives the eases of wine, the choice brands 
of cigars, the silks, the furniture, the clothing or what- 
ever the invoice may call for, without payment of duties. 
This is a privilege which has been abused, but only 
upon very rare occasions. A diplomat caught doing 
an importing business through secret partnership with 
some unscruplous merchant is promptly recalled by his 
government and disgraced. The standard of common 
honesty in the diplomatic corps does not countenance 
for a moment such rascality. 

Members of the diplomatic corps conduct themselves 
and their legations, as a rule, in such a way as not to 
infringe upon the laws of the country which surround 
them, and which has no jurisdiction over them. Even 
if they were not circumspect, they could be reached only 
in a roundabout method. No tradesman of Washington 
brings suit on a bill against a diplomat. No policeman 
warns the chancellor of a legation to clean the snow 
off the sidewalk or to do any other thing that the city 
ordinances prescribe. A minister has been known to 
visit the State Department to protest against police 
interference with his coachman. A few years ago the 
agent of a theatrical company, in his excess of zeal, 
issued an invitation to the entertainment in the form 
of a subpoena, with an imitation of the notarial seal 
attached. Taking the Congressional Directory, he sent 
to all of the officials foun.d therein a copy of the for- 
midable looking document. Most of the diplomats had 
been in the country long enough to be not surprised at 

Position 26. Map 4. 



130 WASHINGTON THnoUGU THE STKREOSCOPE 

any eccentricity of the American advertiser, but one 
minister from a far off power responded promptly with 
a call on the Secretary to protest against the supposed 
violation of his international prerogatives. Something 
more than custom preserves these foreigners from the 
direct operation of the local statutes. The official or 
citizen who infringes on the peculiar immunities of the 
diplomatic corps may find himself arraigned as a " vio- 
lator of the laws of nations and a disturber of the public 
repose." These rights are matters of international 
agreement. The penalty for suing or prosecuting a 
member of a legation is severe. It includes fine and 
imprisonment. 

We are soon to visit the section of Washington in 
which the members of the diplomatic corps have their 
homes, but before we do so let us return to the White 
House and witness these dwellers in Cosmopolis assem- 
bled on the south front of the White House for their 
New Year's call on the President. 

Position 27. Diplomats and Other Distinguished 

Guests at a Reception, the White House, 

WasJiington, U.S.A. 

It is a brilliant assemblage upon which we are gaz- 
ing, and it is easy for us to distinguish some of its mosf 
conspicuous figures. Herr Von Holleben, long German 
ambassador and dean of the corps, stands in the center 
of the group. Sir Michael Herbert, the late English 
ambassador, faces us on the extreme left, and in front 
of him, with face turned from us, is Baron de Fava, 
the Italian minister. The Austrian minister, Herr 
Hengelmuller Von Hengelvar, stands in the foreground 
on our left, and in the middle foreground are the Swiss 
and Chilian ministers, the one with his back turned to- 
ward us, and the other facing his Italian compatriot. A 

Positions 26, 27. Map 4. 



PERILS OF DIPLOMATIC LIFE 131 

stranger gazing upon such a scene as this would natu- 
rally infer that the life of a diplomat was all sunshine 
and roses. As a matter of fact, however, the path of 
the foreign envoy is literally lined with pitfalls, and if 
he is able to escape from them entirely he must neces- 
sarily ascribe it more to good fortune than to skill or 
discretion. The rules and regulations that govern the 
conduct of the private citizen, and even that of the 
ordinary government official, are altogether inadequate 
in his case. He is forced to keep always in mind, not 
only in his official intercourse, but also in his private 
life, the very important fact that he represents his 
country and his government, and that every word 
spoken by him, his every action, or even gesture, are 
held to commit the power by which he is accredited. 
Take the case of Viscount Santo-Thyrso, former minis- 
ter of Portugal here in Washington. When President 
McKinley was shot at Buffalo, Viscount Santo-Thyrso 
made daily inquiries at the White House as to the 
President's condition. Nine days before Mr. McKinley 
died, the Viscount paid his usual visit to the White 
House and got there about the time a despatch had been 
received which, owing to misreading, was interpreted 
to mean that the President was dead. The minister 
was informed that Mr. McKinley had passed away, and 
he hurried to a telegraph office and sent the news to the 
foreign office at Lisbon. Then he told some of his 
friends of the diplomatic circle of what he had heard 
at the White House in order that they might also send 
the news to their governments. The Portuguese King 
and his government were prompt to respond with mes- 
sages of sympathy addressed to Mr. Roosevelt and Sec- 
retary Hay. When it was learned in Lisbon that Mr. 
McKinley still lived there was great indignation ex- 
pressed toward Santo-Thyrso, who, it was felt, had 

Poaltioa27. Map 4, 



133 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

placed his government in a humiliating position, and, 
without giving him a chance to explain, the Minister 
of Foreign Affairs recalled him by telegraph. 

Soon we are to visit the fashionable quarter of Wash- 
ington, but at present let us return to the State, War 
and Navy Building, ascend to the roof, and look south- 
west past the White House and the Treasury Building, 
through Pennsylvania Avenue, to the Capitol. Turn 
to Map No. 4 and locate the two red lines having the 
Fig. 28 at the end of each which radiate from the State, 
War and Navy Building. These lines should be located 
also on the General Map of Washington. Our next 
position, then, is to be on the top of the State, War and 
Navy Building, and we shall be looking slightly south 
of east. 

Position 28. From Navy Dej}artnient Southeast 

past the White House and Treasury to the 

Capitol, Washington, U.S.A. 

Now we are standing near the center of the roof of 
the State, War and Navy Building. The President's 
Park is directly below us; the White House and the 
Treasury Building are on our left, while to the right 
is Pennsylvania Avenue stretching out to the Capitol. 
Hidden from view on our left is Lafayette Square, and 
on our right the Monument. Behind us are George- 
town and the Potomac. Also hidden from our view in 
the rear of the Treasury Building is the Department 
of Justice, where the law officers of the government 
have their headquarters. 

The object to which the eye most often returns in 
the scene before us is Pennsylvania Avenue. Let us 
descend from our present point of vantage, cross the 

Posltloa 28. Maps 2, 4. , 



REVIEW OF THE GRAND ARMY 133 

President's Park, and from the south front of the 
Treasury Building get a close view of this noble thor- 
oughfare. The two red lines numbered 29 on Map No. 
4, which radiate from the Treasury Building, and 
are also given on the General Map of Washington, show 
what is to be our next position. 

Position 29. Pennsylvania Avemie from the 

Treasury f southeast to the Capitol, 

Washington, U.S.A. 

We are standing now at the south entrance of the 
Treasury Building and looking southeastward through 
Pennsylvania Avenue at the Capitol, which, though it 
appears only a few blocks away, is really more than a 
mile distant from us. The White House is now in our 
rear. The avenue in front of us, with its varied and 
animated life, is one of the historic streets of the world. 
Through it during the last hundred years have passed 
eighteen Presidents-elect on their way to the Capitol 
to assume the duties of the most exalted office within 
the people's gift; and it has furnished the setting for 
many another memorable incident. Could we have 
stood in May, 1865, where we are standing now we 
should have witnessed one of the noblest spectacles of 
modem times. 

The last of the Confederate forces had laid down 
their arms; the long war between the sections was at an 
end; and the million Union soldiers in the field were 
free to return to their former pursuits. The armies of 
Meade and Sherman, 200,000 strong, until muster and 
pay-rolls had been made out, went into camp around 
Washington. Then, as a splendid climax to all that had 
gone before, it was ordered that Meade's army on May 
23d, and Sherman's on the 24th should pass in grand 
review before the Administration. For six hours on 



Position 29. Maps 2, 4. 



134 WASHINGTON THROUGH THK STEREOSCOPE 

one day and seven on the other a great throng gathered 
from all parts of the North, and watched the men in 
the ranks, marshalled by generals whose names had be- 
come household words, pass sixty abreast through the 
wide avenue before us. All the States of the North 
were represented among the bronzed, weather-beaten 
soldiers, whose cadenced advance suggested the might 
and power of an ocean tide. Those who witnessed, with 
mingled pride and awe, the passage of the stern-faced 
men who made up the long column knew now what Lin- 
coln meant when he talked to them of " veterans " ; and 
were brought also to a sudden, glad realization of the 
truth that the government that could call such an army 
into being would " not perish from the earth." 

We have had the Treasury Building in our rear while 
looking out upon Pennsylvania Avenue. Cross with me 
to the south side of the avenue, and from the upper 
story of a building get a fair view of this great struc- 
ture. Turn to Map No. 4 and locate the two red lines 
which branch from the number 30 toward the Treasury 
Building. It is evident that from this new position we 
shall be looking toward the south and east sides of the 
Treasury Department. 

Position 30. United States Treasury Building 

{SoutJi Front), guarding trillions tij>on 

Millions in Coin and Notes, 

Washington, U.S.A. 

Here we are standing on the south side of Pennsyl- 
vania Avenue and looking northwest at the Treasury 
Building. The low structure we see in its rear, oflE to 
our right, is the Department of Justice. The Mall is 
behind us. and hidden from view on our left is the White 
House. The sandstone and granite pile before us has a 

PosMoas 29, 30. Map 4. 



THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT 135 

total length of 450 and a width of 250 feet, and, though 
handicapped by an unfortunate site, you will readily see 
that it is one of the noblest buildings in Washington. 
You will also note that it has about it an air of solidity 
and security that well becomes the bank of the nation, 
from whence issue the energizing currents without 
which not a single operation of the government could 
be carried on. 

A varied range of activities are carried on within the 
structure before us, but it is as a financial institution 
that the Treasury has most interest for us. Could we 
enter the building through yonder south front, with its 
stately Ionic columns, a few paces would carry us to one 
of the costliest apartments in the world. This is the 
Cash Eoom, where are cashed the warrants drawn upon 
and presented to the Treasury for payment. The daily 
transactions run into millions — warrants for vast sums 
being cashed without a moment's delay — and you can 
have a part in them by presenting at one of the steel- 
screened windows a warrant on the government in the 
shape of a national currency bill, and, by receiving coin 
for its face value, thus complete the circulation of thaf 
particular piece of paper as money. It went out from 
the building in front of us as new currency; it passed 
through countless hands in exchange for a thousand and 
one different things, and now, old and worn, finds its 
way back again to be redeemed and then destroyed. 

Indeed, what one sees of most interest in the building 
which now commands our attention is the making of 
new money, its exchange for old, and the destruction 
of the old. The government bonds and the national 
currency are printed at the Bureau of Engraving and 
Printing a few blocks in our rear. Thence the cur- 
rency is brought over at nine o'clock every morning, 
a million dollars a day, attended by a force of guards, 

Position 30. Map 4. 



136 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

to the Treasury, where it is delivered to the Division 
of Issue. Here it is again counted, and then sent to 
the Sealing Eoom to receive the finishing touch — the 
red seal which is the government's attestation of genu- 
ineness. This distinguishing mark is printed on by 
steam presses, under the eye of the Eegister of the 
Treasury, and bears the legend, " Thesaur. Amer. Sep- 
tent. Sigil." — Seal of the Treasury of North America. 

Next a cutting machine cuts each sheet into four 
component parts, and in packages of four thousand bills 
the currency now passes through the hands of five suc- 
cessive counters, after which it goes to the sealing clerk, 
who wraps up the packages in plain brown paper, and 
seals each one with the Treasury seal. These packages 
are deposited for two months or more in the Treasury 
reserve vault, whence, in the regular course they pass into 
circulation, only to finally find their way back to the 
building in front of us as worn and mutilated currency, 
to be redeemed in the Eedemption Division. The old 
currency received by this division to be exchanged for 
new comes in from l^anks throughout the country and 
from the Sub-Treasuries. An average of a million dol- 
lars is received daily, or more than three hundred mil- 
lions a year. The women in the Eedemption Division 
count the bills over with skilled and rapid fingers, after 
which they are cut in halves with a huge knife. 

When a bundle of bills is thus cut in twain one set 
of halves is sent to the Eegister of the Treasury and 
the other set of halves to the division of Loan and Cur- 
rency. In both offices they are counted, and the sums 
must agree with each other as well as with the count 
in the Eedemption Division. Wlien this has been de- 
clared correct the Treasurer of the United States is 
credited with the amount. Next the divided halves are 
packed in wooden boxes and conveyed in a big covered 

Position 30. Map 4. 



DESTROYING REDEEMED CURRENCY 137 

wagon to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The 
progress of this wagon is watched by five men in a one- 
horse carriage, who follow closely. These men are the 
committee in charge of destruction. One of them rep- 
resents the Secretary of the Treasury, another the 
Treasurer of the United States, another the Eegister 
of the Treasury, another the Commissioner of Internal 
Eevenue, and another the people of the United States. 
The first and last of these five are appointed by the 
Secretary of the Treasury; each of the others is given 
office by the official in behalf of whom he acts. All the 
internal revenue stamps are destroyed, like the notes 
and certificates, at the Bureau of Engraving and Print- 
ing, where they are made originally. 

Upon their arrival at the Bureau the halved notes, 
certificates and internal revenue stamps are carried by 
the chestful into a room in the basement at the rear, 
where their contents are poured through a huge iron 
funnel into an iron cylinder, five feet in diameter and 
ten feet long in the cellar below. The cylinder is partly 
filled with water and heated by steam, which boils the 
erstwhile precious contents for thirty-six hours, at the 
end of which the money and stamps are reduced to a 
mud-like pulp. There are two of these cylinders, and 
while one is stewing away the other is ready to receive 
fresh supplies. The masses of pulp thus prepared are 
heaped into a pit below, from which the moist material 
is carried upstairs again, passed through a machine 
which transforms it into sheets a quarter of an inch 
thick and dried in that shape, when it is ready to be 
sent to the paper mills as stock. 

Twenty-five years ago all the paper money to be de- 
stroyed, instead of being macerated, was burned in an 
air-blast fire of great heat. But Congress, perceiving 
that the stock reduced to pulp would be valuable enough 

Position 30. Map 4. 



138 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

at least to pay the expense of destruction, passed a law 
decreeing that the process at present followed should be 
adopted. The pulp, as now prepared, is sold to the 
paper-making trade for $20 a hundredweight, dry. 
Any one else can buy the pulp, which contains eighty 
per cent, of water, for one-fifth that price. The paper 
manufactureres would not purchase it in that shape, 
because the freight would be too much for so great a 
weight. Those who invest in the pulp for the purpose 
of making it into busts of Abraham Lincoln and repre- 
sentations of the Washington Monument, employ their 
own molds and make their own estimates of the value 
of the original money material composing their wares. 
The guess on the replica of the monument is usually 
$1,000,000, but the only certainty it is based upon is 
the verdancy of the casual visitor. National bank-notes 
are not destroyed at the Bureau of Engraving and 
Printing. For them a special macerator of a different 
pattern is employed by the Controller of Currency, 
under whose special superintendence they are counted 
separately for redemption. Beneath his office is a sort 
of tub with revolving knives, into which all of this sort 
of paper money is cast when worn out. The keen blades 
chew it up into fragments, under the eye of persons ap- 
pointed by the national banks to superintend the opera- 
tion, so that it is of no use any more for any purpose 
whatsoever save for paper stock. For this purpose 
Uncle Sam's disused cash serves admirably, inasmucK 
as it is mostly linen fiber. 

One of the most interesting branches of the work of 
the Redemption Division is the handling of the burned 
and mutilated currency. The government is always 
willing and even anxious to replace spoiled money if it 
can possibly be identified. The skill of the women em- 
ployed in this work is little short of marvelous. One 

PosMoa 30. Map 4. 



IDENTIFYING MUTILATED MONEY 139 

lady, Mrs. Brown, attends to all the burned notes. 
Patiently she picks out scrap after scrap from a mass of 
charred fragments such as any ordinary person would 
regard as hopeless. One by one she pastes them on 
paper, assembling the pieces of each note on a paper 
by itself, and trying to " restore " the greenback as a 
naturalist would build up an extinct animal from a 
few fossil remains. Even a portion that is hardly more 
than an ash may still show the engraved design. When 
she is done, it remains to be determined how many of 
the bills shall be considered as properly identified. In 
the case of a bank-note the name of the bank must be 
ascertained. 

In this kind of labor powerful magnifying glasses are 
often called into requisition. A note that has been 
chewed up by a baby is apt to be difficult of treatment. 
Babies destroy a good deal of money in this way in the 
course of every year, and the same may be said of puppy 
dogs. They have an equal disregard of value repre- 
sented by currency. Goats eat money now and then, 
and so do cows. Mice are particularly destruttive. 
They like to make nests out of paper cash, and this 
practice is encouraged by people who hide their savings 
in walls and under floors. Birds would seem to have 
a similar inclination, judging from a rather odd hap- 
pening of a few years ago. An employee of the Sub- 
treasury in Cincinnati, named Turpin, was shaving 
himself one sunny afternoon, when a robin flew in at 
the window. It flew out a moment later, and it did not 
occur to Turpin to suspect the bird when he discovered 
that a ten-dollar bill, which he had taken from his waist- 
coat pocket and placed on the centre table was gone. A 
few days later, however, a storm blew a robin's nest out 
of a tree near the front porch. It was picked up, and 
the missing bill was found incorporated in its material. 

Position 30. Map 4. 



140 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

Though a good deal damaged, it was subsequently re- 
demed. 

One day several summers ago lightning entered the 
house of a farmer in Maryland. In a frolicsome mood 
it flashed through a cupboard and burned a slice out of 
a $3 certificate. The strip burned was nearly two 
inches wide, lengthwise through the middle of the bill. 
The latter was redeemed afterward, the number and 
seal being entirely legible. To bury paper money is a 
mistake, because under such conditions it rots. Now 
and then a person is burned to death, and cash removed 
from the clothing of the corpse is sent in for redemp- 
tion. The contents of a wallet dug up with the body of 
a murdered inan afforded a rather disagreeable subject 
for investigation not long ago. A few years ago an old 
woman died of a contagious disease at Eockford, 111., 
and her clothes were burned. Subsequently it occurred 
to the heirs to search the ashes, and remains of money 
were found. Twenty-five dollars of the amount repre- 
sented was identified and redeemed. During the last 
year or two several consignments of money in minute 
bits have reached the Redemption Division, being sent 
in by banks whose safes had been treated with dynamite 
by burglars. An overdose of dynamite applied to a safe 
is apt to have such an effect — which ought to be a lesson 
to robbers. 

Thus far we have followed the making and destruc- 
tion of jjaper money. Each piece of it, however, is only 
a promise to pay gold or silver in the specific sum 
named on its face; and in the vaults of the Treasury 
Building in front of us, and in the Sub-treasuries are 
stored the gold and silver bonds (representing gold) 
with which to make good the currency promises to pay. 
The great silver storage vault extends under the ter- 
race which we see in front of the Treasury Building, 

Positioa 30. Map 4. 



THE STRONG BOX OF THE NATION 141 

and contains a mighty box of steel latticework, 80 feet 
long, 51 feet wide, and 13 feet high, filled chock full of 
silver dollars. Visitors are permitted to walk around 
the mass of treasure, following a narrow passage which 
runs between the sides of the box and the steel walls 
of the vault. This latticework receptacle holds $101,- 
000,000 in silver, which is packed in wooden boxes, two 
bags of standard dollars to a box, and each box weigh- 
ing 120 pounds. Formerly the coin was simply stacked 
up in bags, but notwithstanding the walls of steel, 
dampness rotted the bags and the money ran out of 
them. This made extra trouble, requiring fresh counts, 
and it is no small job to reckon over such a gigantic 
sum in metal. Hence it was decided to pack the stuff 
in boxes. Each sack contains $1,000, and so long as the 
Treasurer's seal on it is intact its contents do not have 
to be verified on occasions when recounts are made. 

There are three other great vaults in the basement 
whose windows blink at us across yonder terrace. One 
of these is devoted to silver dollars, fractional silver coin 
and gold coin. Another contains the United States 
bonds deposited by the national banks as security for 
their own notes in circulation. A third holds the gokf 
and silver and millions of paper money used by the 
Division of Issue. There was quite a scare some years 
ago because this vault refused to open. It is always set 
for 8.30 A.M. with a time-lock, but on this occasion 
something seemed to be wrong with the mechanism, 
and the steel doors remained obstinately closed. Nine 
o'clock arrived, and still the money was locked up. For 
once Uncle Sam's bank was obliged to suspend pay- 
ments. Experts came with their tools to break open the 
vault, but before they got there the big safe had opened 
of its own accord. It turned out that the time-lock had 
been set by an accident for 9.30. 

Poaltloa 30. Map 4, 



142 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

In this vault not only gold and silver, but, as I told 
you a moment ago, many millions in paper money are 
always kept. If thieves could obtain access to it they 
might easily walk away with an enormous sum, the 
notes and certificates being done up in packages and 
neatly labelled with the sums they contain in large red 
figures. Each parcel holds 4,000 notes, and is in size 
just about a foot cube. If the denomination is $500, a 
single such package represents $2,000,000. However, 
if anybody did succeed in getting away with cash in this 
shape he could hardly fail to be caught, inasmuch as 
the numbers of the bills would be advertised imme- 
diately, and every bank in the country would be on the 
lookout for them. 

Burglars may be practically excluded, but the Treas- 
ury does not claim to be theft-proof. On an unlucky 
day in 1870 a visitor came into the Treasurer's room 
with a large Panama hat in his hand. The Treasurer's 
attention was distracted by some other people who were 
trying to talk to him, and the man dropped his hat care- 
lessly over a package which contained 2,000 ten-dollar 
notes, lying on the desk. It was one of several such 
packages, and the loss of it was not noticed until some 
hours later. The notes were advertised, and some time 
afterward a part of them were deposited in a New York 
bank. The depositor was arrested, but nobody was pun- 
ished for the crime. 

Notwithstanding the fact that the Treasury vaults 
compare poorly witli the impregnable steel-clad struc- 
tures now used by great private concerns that have valu- 
ables to protect, the government feels fairly secure as 
to the safety of its stored wealth. The best safeguard 
for coin is its weight. The $152,000,000 in silver now 
held in the strong rooms of the Treasury weighs nearly 
■5,000 tons. A million dollars in gold coin weighs about 

Position 30. Map 4. 



ACTIVITIES OF THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT 143 

two tons, and it would take a very strong man to earr)' 
off $50,000 worth of the yellow stuff. Though a gold 
brick the shape and size of an ordinary building brick 
represents $8,000, its " heft " is something astonishing. 
Suggestions have been made that it might be practicable 
to burrow beneath the Treasury by tunnel, and thus 
pillage Uncle Sam's coffers by a sort of rat-hole method, 
but even if this were accomplished, it is difficult to im- 
agine how it would be practicable to remove much of the 
coin. 

Before we take our leave of the great structure we 
have been studying let us glance at other of the varied 
activities carried on within its walls. Here are the 
headquarters of the customs, internal revenue and 
revenue cutter services; of the lighthouse and life-sav- 
ing services; of the steamboat inspection and marine 
hospital services; of the bureau of navigation, and of 
the supervising architect of government buildings 
throughout the United States. Almost 4,500 people 
are employed in the building across the way, and there 
are approximately in the employ of the Treasury De- 
partment 25,000 persons, an army of men and women 
equal to our regular army as it existed previous to the 
Spanish War. 

The building before us is a vital and pervading fac- 
tor in our national life. Let us now pay a visit to an 
institution which has to do in a distinctive and pictur- 
esque way with life in Washington. Turn to the Gen- 
eral Map of Washington, and locate the two red lines 
which radiate westward from tbe number 31 at Seventh 
and B streets. Their apex will be our next point of 
vision. 



Posltloa 30. Map 4. 



144 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

Position 31, Fruits of the Sunny South and their 

Huyers in Famous Old Centre Market, 

Washington, U. S.A. 

Now we are standing near the southeastern corner of 
the Centre Market. On our left we catch a glimpse of 
the north side of the Mall. The Capitol is behind us, 
and the Monument in front and to the right. The 
number of black faces which have a place in the busy 
and animated scene before iis remind us that Washing- 
ton, when its permanent population is considered, is 
essentially a Southern city. Indeed, wherever you go 
in Washington you will meet the joyous, laughing 
darky, who lives upon the ruling class, and refuses to 
take thought for a rainy to-morrow. And the Wash- 
ington negro, whether forehanded or out-at-elbows, has 
good reason to be satisfied with his lot, for nowhere 
else does he command and enjoy the same favoring 
conditions, the same standing and treatment. Four 
thousand of the odd 90,000 negroes in Washington are 
in government employ. They have their editors, teachers, 
doctors, dentists, dancing masters; their clubs, saloons, 
newspapers, schools and halls; and they have a genteel 
society of their own modelled closely upon the lines of 
white society, and living in amity with that body. 

Negroes own more than $8,000,000 worth of real 
estate in the District of Columbia. The wealth of many 
families of colored persons in Washington sprang from 
the development of the West End, which was mainly 
occupied in other years by the tumble-down shanties of 
negro squatters. For the making of its beauty and ele- 
gance the property-holders were assessed. Many negroes 
surrendered their lots, but many others paid the assess- 
ments, held on, and were made wealthy when fashion 
led the rich to buy up the land and build upon it. Thus 

Position 31. Map 2. 



A HAUNT OP GREAT MEN 145 

the provident colored people who had worked and saved 
were able to become capitalists. Some other fortunes 
were made in trade, and by cooks, restauranteurs, and 
men who practice the professions among the people of 
their own race. One popular professional man is said 
to be the son of a man who mixed cocktails for forty 
years in a saloon on Pennsylvania Avenue — but why 
should our white brothers in high fashionable circles 
look down on the man for that ? 

The market whose life we can study here is almost as 
old as the capital city itself, and has long been counted 
among the Washington haunts of great men. Chief 
Justice John Marshall, Daniel Webster and President 
William Henry Harrison were accustomed to do their 
marketing here in person; and the first named once 
figured in an amusing incident on this spot. The great 
Chief Justice, a plain man of the people, was an early 
riser, and was often seen in this market at sunrise with 
poultry in one hand and a basket of vegetables in the 
other. On one occasion a young man, who had recently 
removed to Washington, was fretting and swearing 
violently because he could find no one to take home his 
turkey. Marshall stepped up and offered to take it 
home for him. Arriving at the house, the young man 
inquired, " What shall I pay you ? " " Oh, nothing," 
was the reply ; " it was on my way, and no trouble." 
As Marshall walked away, the young man inquired of 
a bystander, " Who is that polite old man that brought 
home my turkey for me ? " " That," was the reply, " is 
John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States." 

There is one great branch of the Government that has 
not yet claimed our attention. Walk with me now four 
blocks to the northward, and from the southwest corner 
of Ninth and F Streets view the building which 



Position 31. Map 2. 



146 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

houses the Department of the Interior. Find on the 
General Map of Washington the two red lines branching 
northeast from the number 32. From our position 
we shall look down upon the south side of the Patent 
Office. 

Position 32. United States Patent Office where 

Fortunes have been Secured to Inventors, 

Washington f U.S.A. 

The mighty freestone, granite and marble structure 
before us, furnishes quarters for the officials of the sev- 
eral fields into which the work of the Department of the 
Interior is divided. The one relating to patents is most 
widely known, and the great building is, therefore, gen- 
erally called the Patent Office. Could we visit its 
interior we should find the Museum of Models filling 
the four halls of the second story, and containing an 
immense array of models. The oldest of these is a 
model of a cloth-shearing machine, on which a patent 
was granted to S. G. Dorr of Albany, N. Y., October 
20, 1792. It is in good condition and repair, because 
it was renovated after the fire which in 1877 destroyed so 
many models of historic interest and of inestimable 
value. There have been two fires in the Patent Office. 
The first of these took place in 1836, on Christmas 
Day, and destroyed about 7,000 models. The second 
fire was far more disastrous. It occurred on September 
24, 1877, destroying 87,000 models of patented devices 
and 27,000 models of devices for which applications for 
patents were pending. Among the models which suf- 
fered in the second fire was that of the cotton gin in- 
vented by Eli Whitney in 1794. A duplicate of this 
model was built, and it stands in the Patent Office to- 
day. Among the other original models in tlie Patent 
Office are Colt's first revolver, patented in 1837; E. A. 

PosHloa32. Map 2. 



THE AMERICAN PATENT SYSTEM 147 

Hoe's double-cylinder printing press, patented in 1842; 
Howe's first sewing machine (a queer contrivance run 
by hand by an oscillating crank) ; Morse's electric tele- 
graph, the first engine run over the Baltimore and Ohio 
road (patented by Eoss Winans in 1833) ; the Gatling 
gun, and the Hotchkiss gun. There are 186 classes of 
inventions altogether and these are divided into more 
than 3,000 subjects. 

The American patent system is unique. There is 
none other like it, except the German system, and that 
has been modelled on the American plan. The main 
distinctive feature is the American system of examina- 
tions both as to the novelty of the inventions and the 
form of the application. The European offices are 
merely places for the registration of inventions. The 
inventor writes out a description of his invention, 
with drawings if necessary, deposits it in the European 
office and is given a patent, but at his own risk. He 
pays the government a fee when he files his papers, and 
an annual tax thereafter, but the government does not 
give him even a prima facie guarantee of the validity 
of the patent. It has made no examination to deter- 
mine that question. The invention may be as old as 
the steam engine. Hence it frequently happens that 
a number of patents are successively granted by the same 
government for the same thing. 

The American patent system differs radically from 
this theory. The United States Patent Office is sup- 
posed to make a thorough examination of each applica- 
tion. This examination is to determine, first, whether 
the specification is drawn in the form required by the 
law as interpreted in prior decisions of the courts, and 
second, how much of the alleged invention is new. The 
inventor's claims are then restricted to that portion 
which is found to be new. Hence, a United States 

Poaltloa32. Mmp2. 



148 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

patent is prima facie valid. But the seal of the Com- 
missioner gives only a presumptive validity to an 
American patent, and that presumption is stronger as 
the work of his subordinates has been more thorough. 

To accomplish this work, the vast machinery housed 
in the building before us has been built up. It grinds 
out now about 30,000 patents a year. The number of 
applications filed is about 50,000, so that only about 
sixty per cent, of the applications mature into patents. 
In place of the four assistants who helped the Commis- 
sioner to get out 436 patents in the first year of the 
Patent Office history, there are now more than five hun- 
dred. The examining force alone is cut up into more 
than thirty divisions. Each division deals with a 
particular class of inventions. At its head is a principal 
examiner, with from three to six assistants and from one 
to three clerks. The assignment division has scores of 
clerks recording assignments of patents and trademarks. 
Another large division has proof-readers and clerks 
busy in preparing the specifications for printing after 
they have been passed by the examiners, and in the pub- 
lication of the weekly official Gazette with its list of 
patents and patentees. The chief draughtsman has all 
the drawings and photo-lithographs of drawings under 
his charge, and his forces occupy half a dozen large 
rooms. The great library, the vast model hall with its 
154,000 imitation inventions, the rooms of the financial 
clerk, who handles $1,250,000 a year, and the inter- 
ference division with its little court before which con- 
testing applicants for patents on the same invention 
come, " all are but parts of one stupendous whole " de- 
voted to American inventive genius. 

The application for a patent passes through many 
hands. Suppose that John Jones has made an inven- 
tion in telephones. The papers go to the application 

Position 32. Map 2. 



HOW A PATENT IS ISSUED 149 

division and are referred to the examiner of " Elec- 
tricity, Division A." The drawing is passed upon by 
the draughtsman's division to see that it complies with 
the requirements of the office as to artistic execution. 
When the case has reached the room of the examiner 
it is placed on the desk of the assistant examiner, who 
makes a specialty of telephones. He takes the case up 
and reads it carefully. He notes any errors of language, 
omissions, misstatements of scientific principles, viola- 
tions of legal rules, etc., and will call the applicant's 
attention to them in a letter. Then the question 
whether the invention will work as the inventor thinks 
it will comes up, and after that the examination of the 
claims made by the inventor. He claims the combina- 
tion of certain elements as his invention. The assist- 
ant may know Just where to put his hand on a prior 
patent, a book or a paper describing that identical com- 
bination of elements which this misguided electrician 
supposed to be original with him, and the matter is 
soon disposed of. The assistant reports the case to the 
principal examiner in charge of the division, a letter is 
written to the applicant stating that his claim is rejected 
on reference to such and such prior publications, and he 
is left to adjust himself to the new aspect of affairs as 
best he may. 

If the assistant does not remember anything like the 
claim, a search is begun which, to be exhaustive, may 
last for weeks. If the search is fruitless he plunges 
into the scientific and technical literature of half a 
dozen different languages. If nothing of the kind can 
be found the patent issues with the great seal of the 
United States government. This is the ideally perfect 
examination — the thing for which the inventor pays 
$35 into the Treasury. What he gets is frequently a 
very different thing. When cases are accumulating on 

Posltlnn 32. Map 2, 



150 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

the assistant's desk at the rate of four or five a day he 
cannot give two or three weeks to the examination of 
one of them, no matter how important. He makes a 
hurried search through the American patents and those 
of the English, French and German which he has at 
hand, asks his fellow examiners if they ever saw any- 
thing of the kind for which he is looking, and if he 
fails everywhere, writes the applicant a species of bluff- 
ing letter saying that the claim is not allowable on gen- 
eral principles. The applicant's attorney replies calmly 
asking for proofs in the shape of a reference to some 
prior publication, or instance of prior use. Thereupon 
the examiner has to back down and the patent is issued. 
The patent perhaps is sold for a round sum and still 
more money is spent in pushing the invention. Some- 
body infringes and is sued. The person thus threatened 
puts expert searchers into the great libraries and pretty 
soon one of them turns up a musty volume in which is 
printed a paper read by Professor Volt before the Chain 
Lightning Society of somewhere describing the identical 
invention ten years before poor Jones claimed it. The 
patent is thereby rendered worthless and hard things 
are said about the Patent Office. 

And now let us turn our backs on official Washington, 
and strolling north five blocks make our way westward 
through Massachusetts Avenue to Thomas Circle. 
Turn to the General Map of Washington and locate the 
two red lines radiating northwestward from the num- 
ber 33 at Thomas Circle and having the figure 33 at 
the end of each. We are to stand next at the apex of 
these lines and look northwest. 



PoBltloB32. Map 2. 



A CENTER OF FASHIONABLE SOCIETY 151 

Position 33, Massachusetts Avenue [west front 
Thomas Circle) , a Favorite Center of 
Fashionable Society^ Wash- 
ington, U.S.A. 

Now we are looking from Thomas Circle up Massa- 
chusetts Avenue to Sixteenth Street — the ultra-fash- 
ionable section of Washington. The White House is on 
our left and Iowa Circle on our right, while Scott 
Circle is in front of us, and the Carnegie Library in 
our rear. These we cannot see, but in full view at our 
feet is Ward's noble statue of General Thomas. Be- 
yond that is Highland Terrace lined with some of the 
lordliest homes of Washington. The house nearest us 
on the right is the residence of Bishop Satterlee. Ad- 
joining is the home of Senator Cullom, of Illinois, now 
one of the veterans of the Senate. ' Beyond that, half 
hidden by trees, is the home of Senator Dolliver, of 
Iowa, flanked on the west by the German Legation, the 
great house with the portico and tower. The spire which 
rises in the rear of the German Legation is that of the 
First Baptist Church at the corner of Sixteenth and 
Streets, and the lofty building away to the right is the 
Cairo Apartment, while the white structure that nestles 
among the trees on our farthest left is the Naval Ob- 
servatory, holding a site of great historic interest. 
Washington, when a young man, camped with Braddock 
on the very ground where now stands the Naval Ob- 
servatory, and even then had thought of a great com- 
mercial city here, with the navigable Potomac reaching 
to the sea, to help it in the race for supremacy. 

Could we stroll westward a block and a half from 
where we are standing we should find on the lower side 
of Massachusetts Avenue one of the most helpful of 
Washington institutions — the Louise Home for Women, 

PoMltioa 33. Map 2. 



153 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

founded by William W. Corcoraii, and named in memory 
of his wife and daughter. Among the present guests 
at the Louise Home is Mrs. Letitia Tyler Semple, 
daughter of President John Tyler by his first wife, and 
mistress of the White House after her mother's death. 
This lady, who has gone upon the record as among the 
charming young mistresses of the White House, is a 
representative of another time and generation. She is 
a faithful adherent of the old regime, and as one 
born and reared in the traditions and creeds of the 
Virginian ante-bellum glory, regards with disgust and 
disfavor the so-called progress of these uneasy latter 
times. Since the death of her husband and her en- 
trance to the Louise Home some years ago, Mrs. Semple 
has been quite lost to the gay world in which she once 
reigned, the gay official world which she now placidly 
contemplates from the window of a cosy apartment 
overlooking Massachusetts Avenue. Here, however, in 
the warmth and comfort of her cheery retreat, she re- 
ceives the very small circle of old-time friends and the 
younger ones who delight in the reminiscent pictures 
of her girlhood days and its environment of great per- 
sons and events. To hear her chat familiarly of Daniel 
Webster, of Dolly Madison, and of Clay and Calhoun, 
clothes these intellectual factors of history with flesh 
and blood personality and enables one as it were to shake 
hands with his forefathers and to realize his relation- 
ship to history. Her recollections of an era when society 
was " dignified," when slang was unknown as a drawing- 
room accomplishment, and when " principle and honor 
were the first tenets of a gentleman's creed " are most 
interesting, and her comparisons between then and now 
are never in favor of the present age. 

Now we are to leave our present point of vantage, 



Position 33. Map 2. 



THE HOMES OF FAMOUS MEN 153 

and strolling westward past the Louise Home view 
Massachusetts Avenue from Scott Circle. Turn to the 
General Map of Washington and note the two red lines 
which radiate westward from the number 34 near 
Scott Circle. That will be our next position in the 
fashionable section of Washington. 

Position 34. Homes of Some of the Most Distin- 
guished Hesidents, — Massachusetts Avenue 
{west from Scott Circle), Wash- 
ington, U.S.A. 

Now from the east we are looking down upon Scott 
Circle — the intersection of Massachusetts and Ehode 
Island Avenues, and of Sixteenth and N Streets, which 
here radiate from one another like the spokes of a 
mighty wheel. The marble crescent below us sets off 
the statue which the American disciples of Hahnemann, 
the founder of homeopathy, have erected in his honor; 
in front of us is Brown's equestrian statue of General 
Scott, and yonder at the westward entrance to N Street, 
is the counterfeit presentment in bronze of Daniel Web- 
ster. The house half hidden by trees on our nearest 
right, is the home of Senator Lodge, of Massachusetts, 
and in the rear and to the left of it are the residences 
of Senator Taliaferro of Florida, and Senator Fair- 
banks of Indiana. 

The spire on our left is that of the Church of the 
Covenant, where President Harrison worshipped in 
other years, and across the way from it is the British 
Legation. The house of Commander Cowles, brother- 
in-law of President Eoosevelt, is nearer to us on the 
same side of the way. Between the trees on our 
left and the Church of the Covenant are the residences 
of General Nelson A. Miles and Senator Hawley of 
Connecticut, while less than two blocks from us on 

PoalUon 34. Map 2. 



154 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

our left, though we cannot see it, is the brick and 
brownstone house, at 1747 Rhode Island Avenue, which 
a grateful people, in 1899, presented to Admiral Dewe}'. 
The home of General Miles, which we see through the 
trees, also came to him as a gift. When, in 1895, he 
was placed in command of the army, friends of his in 
Boston, New York, Brooklyn, San Francisco and other 
cities. East and West, quietly gathered together some 
$40,000 and bought and presented to him this house 
in N Street. 

We are standing now, as I told you a little while ago, 
in the finest residence section of Washington. And yet 
thirty years ago this section, where building sites now 
command princely sums, was an unattractive waste 
given over to negro squatters. Now, thanks to the re- 
making of the city under Shepherd, we find its former 
swamps and hillocks covered with miles of elegant 
residences. One would go far in Europe or America 
and not find so delightful a residential street as Massa- 
chusetts Avenue here at our feet. It has not, as you 
will see, the ostentation of New York and Chicago, 
but it has more charm. The social life led under the 
roofs about us is neither unique or original. Instead it 
is very like any of the great capitals, with a strong 
English flavor. It has its fox hunts, its pink balls, its 
breakfasts at the country clubs, and the five o'clock tea- 
table, which struggled so many years for existence, is 
at last an established fact. Foreigners complain that 
it has not enough local coloring to make it interesting. 
But this is true to the superficial observer only. There 
are still many primitive and characteristic things which 
do not appear on the surface. Society is no longer sad 
as some foreigner said of it years ago. On the contrary, 
it is merry and gay enough, with a natural merriment 
and gayety. 

Position 34. Map 2. 



DIVISIONS IN WASHINGTON SOCIETY 155 

From the beginning, when giving a dinner was a tre- 
mendous undertaking and meant hard work for the 
mistress, dinners have occupied a distinctive and undis- 
puted place in the political, as well as the social, history 
of Washington. They have been the favorite social 
functions with men since before Cleopatra feasted An- 
tony. The details of treaties have been arranged, offi- 
cial appointments have been made, and great political 
intrigues have developed under the seductive influence 
of pate and champagne, and men became brothers over 
canvas-backs and burgundy. Ambitious women have 
gained coveted social prestige by the excellence of their 
menus, and, from time immemorial, dinners have been 
more telling weapons in political and social warfare than 
steel and cannon. Dinner-giving has become a fine art 
in Washington. Illustrious statesmen and distinguished 
women have interested themselves in it. Every other 
person is an epicure, cooking is a frequent topic of 
conversation, and there are no barmecide feasts, 

Washington society may be said to be divided into 
three sets. There is, first, the " official set," made up 
of families who are in official life; second, there are the 
old residents of the District, and third, there is what is 
known as the " smart set," composed almost entirely of 
rich people who have come to the capital from other 
cities. The old residents represent the best families 
of Virginia and Maryland, and are more jealous of their 
rigTits and prerogatives than any one set in any city 
to be found in this or any other country. Pedigree, 
and not pocketbooks, is the star that guides them and 
keeps them steadfast in their course. This set includes 
many of the old families of the Army and Navy, and is 
sometimes erroneously called " the Army and Navy 
Circle." The " smart set " includes the very rich who 
have taste in dress, possess handsome homes and the 

PoaUloa 34. Map 2. 



156 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

knack of entertaining well, and the ability to be agree- 
able. The leaders of this set come largely from other 
cities. They build handsome homes and cultivate the 
old residents. Some are recognized by these old Wash- 
ingtoniatis, and with this endorsement they soon become 
independent. 

Official society is free for all, without any handicap. 
The doors of the official are always left open to any 
other official, and each set of officials has its day for 
receiving. Monday has for years been known as the 
Supreme Court day. On that day the wives of the 
Chief Justice and associate justices are at home to 
receive callers. Strangers and visitors to the city feel 
perfectly at liberty to call on the wives of the Justices 
and they avail themselves of the privilege. Tuesday has 
been preempted by the wives of the members of the 
House, while Wednesday is known as Cabinet day. On 
Thursday the wives of Senators hold court, and this is 
one of the most popular days in the week for visiting. 
Swarms of carriages and people afoot can be seen on 
Thursdays making the round of senatorial homes. 
This leaves only two days for the unofficial residents to 
receive unless they want to clash with one of the official 
days. As a rule, they choose Friday or Saturday. 

Washington society is at its brightest and best during 
the winter season. When summer comes there is an- 
other and a very different story to tell. Then the beau- 
tiful city about us becomes like a capital of the Congo 
country. There are plenty of people here at that time. 
Congress is often sitting even in midsummer. But if 
it is not, still plenty are here — clerks, heads of depart- 
ments, the whole of bureaucracy and trade and de- 
pendent labor ; and what a queer experience they have ! 
After dark they venture out for breath and exercise, 
and the enjoyment of a respite from the terrors of the 

Position 34. Map 2. 



WASHINGTON IN SUMMER TIME 157 

day, to prepare for the terrors of the night in the 
bedrooms. At nine o'clock at night darkness and silence 
reign. Shadowy forms are seen on the porches of the 
dwellings, on the high stoops and the galleries over the 
bay-windows. They are the women who have learned a 
trick from their negress servants and from the fixed 
tropical conditions, and upon the porches and balconies, 
out of reach, dress like Sandwich Islanders. If a pedes- 
trian turns towards a house, they disappear indoors. 

The pedestrian in time turns in at his own gate and 
into his own bed. Exhausted, he sleeps, but it is fitful 
sleeping, and every now and then he wakes to find his 
pillow drenched. On some nights the oxygen leaves the 
air, and it becomes dead and motionless. When day 
breaks and the city bustles and the sun rises high, the 
people pray for rain. If it comes, it presents itself with 
tropical severity, in slanting sheets. It may do good, and 
probably does, but never enough to satisfy the populace. 
After it is over, the streets remind the beholder of pic- 
tures of the earth at the time of the coal formation — a 
hot, hissing, steaming mass. During the entire hot 
season the people have time and inclination, to reflect 
upon the disadvantages of having the two extremes of 
climate in one year, and upon the impossibility of build- 
ing a city to meet both extremes. Having to choose be- 
tween the two, Washington necessarily elected to become 
a winter city. It is a northern city on a southern site. 

One of the notable landmarks of Washington remains 
to be visited — the Soldiers' Home in the northern part 
of the city. Its location is outside the northern limits 
of our General Map of Washington. We shall visit it 
now. 



Position 34. Map 2. 



158 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

Position 35. Peace and Sunshine at the Soldiers^ 
Home for War-worn Veterans, Wash- 
ington, U.S.A. 

How picturesque and beautiful is the scene that now 
commands our admiration. The buildings before us 
furnish a home for men who have been honorably dis- 
charged from the regular army after twenty years of 
service, or who have been disabled by wounds or disease. 
The white marble structure on our right is the Scott 
Building, the largest of the five dormitory buildings 
which now house nearly a thousand veterans. Could 
we stroll through the grounds that surround them we 
should come at every turn upon maimed and crippled 
men, now bent with age, who fought with Grant from 
Belmont to Appomattox, who followed Sherman from 
Atlanta to the sea, or who felt the shock of battle with 
other commanders, sitting together in couples or groups, 
or wandering along the shady walks, waiting for the 
final drum "taps." They could not have a better har- 
bor than the one in which we find them. Sturdy oaks, 
clumps of other trees beautifully arranged both by 
nature and art, long, shady drives, babbling brooks, 
pretty ponds, miniature lakes, dense foliage here and 
there and a southern vista through the trees to where 
three miles away, the great, white dome of the Capitol 
lifts its head, make it one of the noblest spots in 
America. 

The Catholic University is now on our right. Be- 
hind the buildings in front of us is the National Cem- 
etery, where nearly 7,000 veterans are taking their last 
sleep; and on our left are the heights of Georgetown. 
This we cannot see, but here in full view on our left 
is a structure that has played its part in history. This 
is the Anderson Building, named for General Robert 

Poaltloaas. Map 2. 



AN ANECDOTE OF LINCOLN 159 

Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumjter, but popiilarly 
known as the President's Cottage, for the reason that 
here several of the Presidents have spent the summer 
months. President Lincoln sat often in the shade of 
yonder porch, and more than one characteristic storv 
attaches to his occupancy of the cottage. Joshua F. 
Speed, a friend of Lincoln's youth, being in Washington 
in the summer of 18G4, was invited out here to spend 
the night. Entering the President's room unannounced, 
he found him sitting near one of the windows that 
now blink at us through the sunshine, intently reading 
his Bible. 

" I am glad to see you so profitably engaged," said 
Speed. 

" Yes," was the reply, " I am profitably engaged." 

" When I knew you in early life," continued Speed, 
" you were a skeptic and so was I. If you have recovered 
from skepticism, I am sorry to say I have not." 

" You are wrong. Speed," said the President, placing 
his hand on his friend's shoulder and gazing earnestly 
into his face. " Take all of this book upon reason that 
you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live 
and die a happier man." 

The ground on which we are now standing is the 
highest around Washington. Could we cross the stretch 
of lawn in front of us and look southward from the 
portico of the Scott Building we should see in the dis- 
tance every public building in Washington, — the tow- 
ering Monument, Arlington, the Long Bridge over 
which marched Grant's legions toward Richmond, and 
the silvery Potomac winding its way to the sea. But 
it would be the Monument that would first claim and 
longest hold our attention. Let us return to the White 
House where we can see the great obelisk again, its 

PomltloaaS. Map 2. 



160 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

most charming setting. That will be our last stand- 
point in Washington. 

Position 36. Inspiring Outlook from the Presi- 
dent's South Windows to the Lofty 
Monument, Washington. U.S.A. 

Now we are looking at the Monument from the 
southern portico of the White House, and again you will 
agree with me that it is like a mountain in that it grows 
on the beholder. How lovely is its present setting of 
trees and shrubbery and level lawn ! And how the 
monument itself stands out in wonderful clearness and 
glory. We are viewing it now on a summer's evening, 
but could we come here in the early morning at any 
season of the year we should find it standing out in 
singular grace and beauty. In the later evening the 
little lights about it add to the impression of its height. 
At such times it cannot be seen at all until near at 
hand, and then it seems all at once to push up very near 
the beholder, with proportions startlingly huge. One 
takes leave of it at any time with the thought that the 
first American could not have a nobler witness to his 
greatness, nor that witness a more fitting site than the 
city which he planned, and which bears his name. 

PosUloa36. Map 2. 



161 



THE ENVIRONS OF WASHINGTON. 

The stranger visiting Washington for the first time 
is always anxious to visit several places of great in- 
terest in the vicinity of Washington. Among the nearest 
of these is Arlington with its National Cemetery and 
Gen. Lee's old home. Setting forth on such a trip, an 
hour's ride by trolley car and transfer coach through 
Georgetown and across the Potomac takes us to the en- 
trance of the cemetery, and soon we are in front of 
Arlington House, the old home of Gen. Lee. See Map 
No. 1. 

Position A. General Robert E. Lee^s Old 
Home, Arlington^ Va, 

We are standing now on the brow of a steep hill 
overlooking the Potomac, 200 feet below us in our rear, 
and in the centre of a noble estate of 1,100 acres. The 
title of this tract passed from Charles II., King of Eng- 
land, who claimed it by " grace of God and the discovery 
of John Cabot," through William Berkeley, Governor 
of Virginia, to Robert Hawsen, October 21, 1669. John 
and Gerard Alexander became the owners under this 
title, and Gerard Alexander by his will, dated August 9, 
1760, gave the property to his son Gerard, by whom 
it was conveyed, December 25, 1778, to John Parke 
Custis. John Parke Custis died November 5, 1781, and 
George Washington adopted two of his children, George 
Washington Parke Custis and Eleanor Parke Custis. 
George Washington Parke Custis inherited the Arling- 
ton estate, and in 1802 he built the noble mansion in 

Position A. Map I. 



1G3 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

front of us. Later this mansion became the home of 
Eobert E. Lee, the Confederate chieftain, but in 1865 
house and estate passed to the federal government. The 
mansion is now occupied by the superintendent of the 
grounds, and keeps silent guard over the graves of 
16,000 soldiers who died in the War for the Union. 

It may be doubted if in all the world there is a more 
beautiful, more suggestive burial place than the one in 
which we are standing, and one loves to think that 
"through long centuries nature lovingly moulded the 
spot, making it ready for its final great purpose, the 
resting place of the nation's silent heroes." But the 
noble lesson taught at Arlington imparts its fullest 
meaning to the visitor when he makes reverent pilgrim- 
ages, as we are about to do, to its Field of the Dead. 

Position B, National Cemetery, Arlington, Va. 

On the level plateau in front of us the headstones of 
white marble stretch away in lines seemingly endless 
to the vision. They are set in ranks, as though they 
had " fallen in " for muster, an(p on each slab is in- 
scribed the name of the soldier whose grave it marks, 
with his State and the number by which he has been en- 
rolled in the Roll of Honor — the roster kept by the War 
Department of those who died in the service of their 
country. But more pathetic than anything else in 
Arlington is an oblong granite pile, hidden from view 
on our left, which marks the site of a pit wherein were 
buried the bones of 2.111 unknown soldiers, gathered 
from the field of Bull Eun and the route to the Rappa- 
hannock. The inscription on this monument tells the 
story, and whoever wrote that inscription — simple, 
strong and loving — was a poet, probably without con- 
sciousness of it : 

" Here lie the bones of 2,111 unknown soldiers. Their 
PosltloaB. Map I. 



A FAMOUS DUELLING GROUND 



163 



remains could not be identified, but their names and 
deaths are recorded in the archives of their country, and 
its grateful citizens honor them as their noble army of 
martyrs. May they rest in peace." 

Another historic spot in the near suburbs of Wash- 
ington which demands a visit is Bladensburg where are 
the old duelling ground and also the scene of the Brit- 
ish victory in 1814. We drive to Bladensburg, five miles 
northeast of the city, and a half mile beyond the village, 
now a rambling collection of old houses, come upon a 
dip of green meadow beside a dried up brook which was 
for half a century the famous dueling ground. Find 
Bladensburg, northeast of Washington, on Map No. 1. 

Position C» Ravine at Sladenshurfff Md., 

Famous for Fatal Duels, Near Scene of 

British Victory, 1814 

How many men have walked down to yonder dell by 
the side of the dry brook hidden under the bank to 
satisfy their vanity at the muzzle of the pistol — men 
who fought as a test of their courage, because they were 
too timid to defy public opinion which demanded blood 
for an insult. More than a century ago this sweet swale 
was turned to sanguinary uses, but the first duellists 
were undistinguished persons. In 1803 Senator Dayton, 
of New Jersey, met here Senator De Witt Clinton, of 
New York, on account of Clinton's aspersions connect- 
ing Dayton with the alleged conspiracy to elect Burr 
President; but when the pistols lay shining in the sun 
ready for use, Clinton manfully apologized for his too 
hasty speech, and they all returned to Washington to- 
gether. Sixteen years later another Senator stood here 
seeking blood — A. T. Mason, of Virginia. His antag- 
onist was his brother-in-law, whom he had persistently 

Position C. map I. 



164 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

pursued with challenges. The first challenge was to sit 
on a powder-barrel and light the fuse; the second to 
hold musket-muzzles against each other's breasts. They 
finally poured buckshot into each other at fifteen feet, 
and Mason was shot dead. 

In 1849 Samuel W. Inge, of Alabama, and Edward 
Stanley of North Carolina, both Congressmen, fought 
a duel in this peaceful meadow because they had called 
each other blackguards in debate. At the third fire, 
neither being scratched, they shook hands, made up and 
adjourned to a neighboring tavern. In 1852 two Eich- 
mo'nd editors fought here a bloodless duel and felt better. 
Two years later John C. Breckinridge met F. B. Cutting, 
of New York, and avoided a duel by tendering a just 
apology. 

But the two duels which rendered this spot most in- 
famous were those in which Commodore Decatur and 
Congressman Cilley were slain. The killing of Cilley, 
a Eepresentative from Maine, was nothing less than a 
foul murder. Cilley had charged corruption upon James 
Watson Webb, the New York editor, and then declined 
to fight with him. Graves, Congressman from Ken- 
tucky, took up the quarrel, and challenged Cilley be- 
cause he would not certify that Webb was a man of 
honor. Cilley fell dead at the third fire, in the presence 
of Henry A. Wise, John J. Crittenden and eight or ten 
other Congressmen. 

There was about as little justice in the duel in which 
Commodore Decatur was killed by Commodore Barron. 
Decatur, virtually at the head of the American navy, 
though ranked by Barron, aspersed his superior and 
succeeded in keeping him on shore. Decatur's was a 
duelling family. He had fought a duel while at school 
by his father's advice, and badly wounded his opponent. 
When twenty-two he fouo^ht another. He bullied the 



Poaltloa C. Map I. 



THE DECATUR-BARRON DUEL 165 

Spanish officers in Barcelona, and was second in a duel 
in which one of them was killed at twelve feet. He had 
been second in a dozen duels, in one of which his own 
brother-in-law was slain. And now he had nagged and 
harassed Barron and drawn a challenge from that sad- 
dened and embittered officer. At dawn on the morning 
of March 22, 1820, he crept downstairs and out of his 
house. To Capitol Hill he walked, and breakfasted at 
Beale's Hotel. At breakfast with Commodore Bain- 
bridge he was very chatty, took his will from his pocket 
and showed it, and laughingly inquired where he had 
better hit Barron. " In the hip, I think," he said. 
Through the muddy clay to Bladensburg they came, and 
here they found Barron and the others. Eight yards 
apart the}'' were placed. It is needless to follow the piti- 
less details. They fired simultaneously. Both fell, and 
each supposed he was mortally wounded. Decatur died 
at midnight, and his widow crept away to become a life 
inmate of the convent at Georgetown. Barron at last 
recovered and dragged out a miserable, ruined, broken- 
hearted existence. 

The fields about us were also the scene of a battle 
which Americans do not like to remember. Here on 
August 24, 1814, 4,500 British veterans under Eoss met 
and put to rout 5,000 militiamen and 900 regulars under 
Winder. The sequel of the battle, if it deserves the 
name, was the occupation of Washington and its partial 
destruction by the British, who on August 20 regained 
their ships in the Chesapeake without molestation. It 
should be added that the liurning of the public buildings 
at Washington caused as righteous anger in England as 
it did in America, and in the House of Commons was 
stigmatized as " of any enterprise recorded in the annals 
of war, the one which most exasperated the people and 
least weakened the government." 

Position C. Map I. 



166 



WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 



And now turning south again we pass down the 
Potomac, for no traveller to Washington would miss a 
pilgrimage to the home and tomb of Washington. 
On the way we shall stop at the quaint town of Alex- 
andria (See Map No, 1), for a visit to its most inter- 
esting landmark, historic Christ Church, which Wash- 
ington helped to build and in which he worshipped for 
many years. 

Position D. Christ Church Alexandria, Va,, 

Where Washington Joined with His 

Neighbors in Public Worship 

It requires the swing of a turnstile and a ten cent 
piece to pass the iron portal in front of us. From the 
small fee charged and the liberality of the congregation 
and their friends abroad the church has just been com- 
pletely renovated and may now be considered good for 
many years. The interior is now exactly as it was in 
Washington's day. The church is built of small bluish 
brick imported from England. The high pulpit, with 
wooden canopy and tablets on either side of the chancel 
containing the Lord's Prayer, Apostles' Creed and Ten 
Commandments, are the original work. Washington was 
a member of the first vestry of the church, in 1765, when 
he was a provincial colonel, a large plantation owner 
and a leading figure in the province. In the old days 
there were thirty-five high, square pews, which were 're- 
duced in 1816, except the Washington pew, to the regu- 
lation style of sittings of to-day. The present structure 
was begun in 1767, according to the specifications, and 
delivered to the vestry in 1773. At that time ten pews 
were sold. Washington purchased pew No. 5, against 
the north wall, for £36 10s, besides £5 additional. This 
pew is preserved intact, and is marked by a silver plate 
bearing the autograph of Washington. It is not 

Position D. Map I. 



THE HOME OF WASHINGTON 1G7 

rented, but is used for visitors to the church during 
services. 

Washington was a disciplined churchman and the 
traditions of the Alexandria church say that he al- 
ways participated earnestly in the responses, especially 
repeating the Lord's Prayer and the Creed. He always 
kneeled in pra^'er, and partook of the communion with 
Mrs. Washington and JSTellie Custis, afterward Mrs. 
Lawrence Lewis. After services it was his wont to 
tarry upon the lawn before the church to receive his 
neighbors and friends in a pleasant chat of fifteen or 
twenty minutes. Then, handing Mrs. Washington and 
Nellie into their chaise or family coach-and-four, he 
mounted his favorite steed, his "negro attendant holding 
the stirrup, and the party galloped off toward Mount 
Yernon, seven miles away. Following in their foot- 
steps, we, too, come at the end of a short ride by trolley 
to Mount Vernon. Note the location of Mount Vernon 
on Map No. 1. 

Position E, Home of Washington Preserved 

in Memory of the Mepublic's Founder, 

Mount Vernon, Va, 

The fine old pile in front of us overlooks the Virginia 
shore of the Potomac sixteen miles south of Washington. 
It is of wood, cut and painted to resemble stone. It was 
built in 1743 by Lawrence, half-brother of George Wash- 
ington, who gave it the name of Mount Vernon in honor 
of Admiral Vernon under whom he had served against 
Spain. Lawrence Washington died in 1752, and his 
estate passed to his only daughter. She soon followed 
her father to the grave, and young George Washington 
became the master of Mount Vernon. Here in 1759 
he brought his bride; here he led the life of a planter 
until called to the field ; thence he returned after York- 

PosHloa E. Map I. 



168 WASHINGTON THnoUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

town, and again after his terms as President, and here 
he dwelt in dignified retirement until his death. Thus 
Mount Vernon has been for more than a hundred years 
a shrine of patriotism, and it is good to know that since 
1860 it has been the property of the Mount Vernon 
Ladies' Association, and so of the Nation. The present 
ownership and administration secure the mansion 
against the ravages of time and the vandalism of un- 
worthy visitors. Each room in the main building has 
been assigned to a State, and the lady regent of the 
State entrusted with its care supervises its restoration, 
preservation and appropriate furnishing. In this way 
the rooms have been brought back in the style of the life 
of Washington and fitted up either with furniture used 
by Washington or of his times. The largest room, 
usually called the banquet-hall or state dining-room, is 
now known as the New York Eoom. Peale's " Wash- 
ington before Yorktown," given by the heirs of the artist 
to the Mount Vernon Association, hangs on the west 
side of the room. Washington is on horseback, and with 
him are Lafayette, Hamilton, King, Lincoln and Eo- 
chambeau. The picture is framed in the wood of a tree 
that grew on the farm of Eobert Morris. The military 
equipments used by Washington in the Braddock cam- 
paign are shown in a glass case. The Washington fam- 
ily dining-room is now the South Carolina Eoom. The 
sideboard in this room is a veritable relic used by Wash- 
ington and his family. It was presented by the wife of 
General Eobert E. Lee, who wished it to go back in its 
original place. 

Perhaps the most interesting relics in the house before 
us are those in the sleeping chambers on the second 
floor. " Lafayette's Eoom " has still the original four 
poster with heavy tester and hangings, and the desk and 
dressing-table, which served the marquis on his visits to 

Position E. Map I. 



WHERE WASHINGTON DIED 169 

the Washington family. The room of Nellie Custis has 
in it a quaint and beautiful chair which came over 
with Lord Baltimore; while the mirror by which she 
made her toilet and the steps by which she climbed into 
her lofty, curtained bed are still in their old places. 
In another room is a curious candlestick of Mrs. Wash- 
ington's, an upright rod supporting a cross-beam, in each 
end of which is a brass candlestick, whose base, a tripod, 
rests upon the floor. The interest of the whole house, 
however, centres in the room where Washington died, 
and in which the years have wrought no change. The 
bed upon which he la}^ dying on a December day in 1799 
stands in the same spot to-day. Near it is a light table 
stained with the marks of his medicine glasses, and at its 
foot the chair in which the faithful wife sat watching 
through all the weary hours, and upon which, when all 
was over, lay her open Bible. One who would have 
watched with her was absent from the room, sweet 
Nellie Custis, given in marriage by Washington to his 
nephew, Lawrence Lewis, on the evening of the 22d of 
February, 1799, the last birthday vouchsafed to the great 
man, lay in her chamber only a few steps off, with a 
new-bom baby beside her. One must climb another 
flight of stairs to reach the room occupied by Mrs. 
Washington after this — a low, narrow-roofed room, very 
cold in winter, for there was no way of heating it, and 
hot when the summer sun beat upon it. Through its 
single dormer window, however, she could look out upon 
her husband's tomb, and there she remained until the 
silver cord which bound her to life was loosed and she 
went to join him in his long sleep by the river. Let us 
visit the spot where they rest side by side. 



PosiUoas B, F. Map t. 



170 WASHINGTON THROUGH THE STEREOSCOPE 

Position F. The Tomb of America's Greatest 
Citizen, Washington, at Mount Vernon, Va, 

The tomb of Washington, as you see, is a severely 
plain structure of brick. The two marble sarcophagi 
visible in its ante-chamber hold all that is mortal of 
Washington and his wife. The one on the right bears 
on its face the name of Washington, with chiseled coat- 
of-arms of the United States and a draped flag. The 
other sarcophagus is graven with the legend, " Martha, 
Consort of Washington, Died May 21, 1801, aged 71 
years." Strange to say the date is an error; it should 
have read 1802. The tomb to which we here make 
pilgrimage is known as the New Tomb to distinguish it 
from Washington's first resting-place which is hidden 
from view on our left. It was to the Old Tomb that in 
1824 Lafayette paid his memorable visit. Seven years 
later it was broken into and rifled of a skull, which the 
ghoul mistakenly believed to be that of Washington. 
A more secure vault was then built, and the remains 
transferred to it. 

The double gates which we see guarding the New 
Tomb recall a singular act of vandalism of the Civil 
War. These grounds of Washington's house and tomb 
were neutral during that conflict. They constituted the 
one spot upon which Union and Confederates could meet 
and fraternize. And it was while the pickets of both 
armies were thus at free quarters that an attempt was 
made to desecrate the sarcophagus. There was only one 
gate to the tomb at that time. The iron bars of this 
gate did not extend to the ceiling of the entrance. 
The man who committed the depredation climbed over 
the top of the gate, reached the sarcophagus, and broke 
a talon from the marble eagle above the receptacle. 
That was the extent of the act. This led to the con- 



Posltloa P. Map I. 



THE TOMB OF WASHINGTON 171 

struction of the double gates which we now find sliut- 
ting in the dead. So close are the bars of the two gates 
that when the place is strewn with flowers they are 
passed through the bars by means of long poles. Un- 
der the strictest orders of the Mount Vernon Association 
these gates are never to be open. After the double 
gate was constructed the outer one was locked and the 
key was thrown into the channel of the Potomac Eiver. 
The channel was chosen because the Potomac is the 
haunt of oyster dredgers and fishermen, and they operate 
in the shallows, and the man who threw the key away 
was specifically instructed to drop it in the channel of 
the stream. 

Position P. Map I. 



NOTE. — If for any reason a person feels unable to 
purchase the complete Washington Tour we suggest the 
following eighteen standpoints : 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 
15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 28, 33, 36, or twenty-four 
standpoints, adding the following four to the above: 
2, 3, 5, 20, 27, 29. 



INDEX TO STEREOGRAPHS AND BOOK* 



Adams, Abigail, 16. 

Adams, Jotiu, 16, 17, 30, 97, 111. 

Adams, John Quincy, 18, 21, 38, 78, 

112, 118. 
Agricultural Department Building, 7, 

12, 60. 
Agricultural Grounds, 7, 60. 
Alexandria, 14. 

Christ Church, D, 166. 
Anaeosta, 12. 

Anderson, Grcneral Robert, 159. 
Arlington Hotel, 45. 
Arlington National Cemetery, 2, C, 12, 

39, 164, 165. 
Arsenal, 13. 

Arthur, Chester A., 30. 
Atzerot, George, 49, 51, 53. 

B 

Baker, Senator, 74. 

Baltimore & Potomac and Pennsylvania 

Railroad Station, 7, 17, 65. 
Barron, Commodore, 118, 162. 
Battle Hymn of the Republic, 48. 
Bayard, James A., 17, 18. 
Beale, General Edward, 118. 
Benton, Thomas H., 18. 
Bladensburg, A. 161. 
Blaine, James G., 77. 
Bonaparte, Jerome, 117. 
Booth, John Wilkes, 50, 51, 53. 
Breckenridge, John C, 162. 
Buchanan, James, 26, 73, 93, 112. 
Bulflnch, Charles, 67. 
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 3, 

40, 43, 135, 137. 
Burr, Aaron, 18. 



Calhoun, John C, 19, 24, 36. 
Calvary Baptist Church, 6, 50. 
Capitol, 1, 2, r, 8, 10, «8, 39, 13, 

16, 25, 26, 30, 37, 39, 44, 60, 65, 67, 

73, 88, 92, 94, 132, 133. 
Burning of, 20, 97. 
Carroll, Daniel, 15, 66, 67. 
Casey, Thomas L., 41, 89, 158. 
Cass, Lewis, 24. 
Catholic University, 13, 158. 
Center Market, 7, 31 , 65, 144. 
Charleston, 22. 
Chase, Salmon P., 25. 
Church of the Covenant, 34, 116, 

153. 
Cilley, Commodore, 66. 162. 
Civil War, Opening of, 26. 
Clay, Henry, 18, 22, 24, 36, 78. 118. 
Cleveland, Grover, 30. 
Clinton, DeWitt, 18, 161. 
Clinton, George, 18, 64. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey, 7, 64. 
Columbian Institution for Deaf Mutes, 

50. 
Columbian University, 119. 
Compromise of 1833, 22. 
Compromise of 1850, 24. 
Congressional Cemetery, 12, 64. 
Conkling, Roscoe, 77. 
Corcoran Art Gallery, 119. 
Corcoran, William W., 118, 152. 
Constitution, United States, 123, 124. 
Crawford, Thomas, 69. 
Crawford, William H., 18, 78. 
Crittenden, John J., 162. 
Curtin, Andrew G., 93. 
Cutting, P. B., 162 



* The stereograph numbers are given in lieavj" tf pe, and the book pages in 
light type. 



174 



INDEX 



D 

Davis, JefferBon, 25. 
Dayton, Seuator, 161. 
Dead Letter Office, 6, 55. 
Decatur, Commodore, 117, 162. 
Declaration of Independence, 123, 124, 

125, 
Department of the Interior, 6, 50. 
Dewey, Admiral George, 24, 120. 

Home of, 154. 
Dexter, Samuel, 17. 
Dickens, Charles, 78. 
Dorr, S. G., 146. 
Douglas, Stephen A., 25, 74. 



England, Second War with, 18, 19. 
Evans, "Fighting Bob," 24, 120. 



Fava, Baron de, 130. 

Pessenden, William P., 25. 

Fillmore, Millard, 24, 26, 78. 

Folger, Secretary of Treasury, 112. 

Ford, Thomas, 113. 

Ford's Theatre, 50, 51. 

Forsyth, John, 64. 

Fort Sumter, Fall of, 26. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 123. 

Fuller, Chief Justice, 10, 11, 72, 75. 

G 

Gallatin, Albert, 17, 18, 111. 
Gardiner, Senator, 102. 
Garfield, James A., 30, 77, 108. 
Georgetown, 12, 13, 14, 44, 132. 
German Reformed Church, 116. 
Gerry, Elbridge, 64. 
Gilmer, Secretary of the Navy, 102. 
Girard, Stephen, 66. 
Government Printing Office, 6, 58. 
Grant, U. S., 29, 30, 31, 105. 
Green, Bernard R., 89. 
Grow, Galusha A., 7, 8, 25. 

H 

Hale, John P., 25. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 111, 123. 



Hamlin, Hannibal, 25. 
Harlan, Judge, 84. 
Harrison, Benjamin, 30, 116. 

William Henry, 23, 73, 98, 101, 
145. 
Hay, John, 11, 75, 131. 
Hayes, Rutherford B., 30, 111. 

Mrs., 115. 
Hengelmuller, Herr, 130. 
Henry, General Guy V., 39. 

Joseph, 62. 
Herbert, Sir Michael, 130. 
Herold, David E., 49, 51, 53. 
Hoban, James, 96, 101. 
Hoe, R. A., 147. 
Houston, Samuel, 25. 
Howard, John Eager, 17. 
Howard University, 13. 
Howe, Julia Ward, 47. 

I 

Inge, Samuel W., 162. 
Irving Washington, 18. 



Jackson, Andrew, 21, 22, 23, 72, 78. 

Statue of General, 23, 116. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 15, 17, 36, 111, 112, 

123. 
Johnson, Andrew, 25, 30, 51, 53, 105. 

119. 
Jones's Point, 15. 

K 

Kennon, Commodore, 102. 
Key, D. M., 111. 
King, Rufus, 19. 



Lafayette, 38. 

Lafayette Square, 23, 45, 116, 117, 120, 

132. 
Lafayette Square Opera House, 4, 45. 
Lane, Harriet, 115. 
Latrobe, Benjamin H., 67, 78, 117. 
Lee, General, Home of, B, 164. 
Surrender of, 29. 



175 



L'Enfant, Major Pierre Charles, 15. 

Grave of, 33. 
Library of Congress, 1, !i, 7, 14» 37, 

89, 60, 88, 89, 90. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 26, 28, 29, 71, 73, 78, 
93, 107, 108, 112, 113, 114, 119, 
120, 159. 
Assassination of, 53. 
Funeral of, 54, 102. 
Livingston, Edward, 17, 118. 
Long Bridge, 5, 47, 93. 
Louise Home for Women, 151. 
Louisiana Purchase, 17. 

M 

McClellan, General, 117. 

McKinley, William, 9, 10, 30, C5, 70, 

72, 77, 131. 
Madison, Dolly, 18. 

Home of, 116. 

James, 18, 20, 36, 111, 112, 123. 
Manning, Secretary of the Treasury, 

112. 
Maps, Patent, 7, 10, 34. 

No. 1 (Washington and vicinity), 
14,15,161, 164, 166,167. 

No. 2 (General), 12, 35, 39, 40, 44, 
46, 49, 60, 66, 88, 90, 91, 92, 115, 
132, 133, 143, 146, 150, 157. 

No. 3 (Plan of Capitol), 69, 70, 72, 
74, 79, 80, 83. 

No. 4 (White House and vicinity), 
40, 96, 115, 120, 132, 133. 
Marshall, John, 17, 111, 145. 
Mason, Jonathan, 17. 

A. T., 162. 
Massachusetts Avenue, 33, 150, 151. 
Maxey, Virgil, 102. 
Medical Museum, 7, 12, 60, 63. 
Metropolitan Meth. Episcopal Church, 

», 65. 
Mexico, War with, 24. 
Miles, General, 1 1, 75. 

Home of, 34, 153. 
Missouri Compromise, 21, 26. 
Monroe, James, 21, 78, 111, 112, 123. 
Morrill, Justin S., 79. 
Morris, Gouvemeur, 17. 
Morse, Samuel F. B., 79. 
Mount Vernon, E, 164, 167, 168. 
Mullett, Alexander B., 31. 



N 

National Asylum for the Insane, 36. 
National Botanical Garden, 17,92. 
National Museum, 7, 12, 60, 62. 
Naval Observatory, 33, 12, 151. 
Navy Yard, 12, 37. 
New York, 13, 16. 

o 

Oak Hill Cemetery, 119. 
Otis, Harrison Gray, 17 . 



Parsons, Theophilus, 17. 
Payne, Lewis, 49, 51, 53. 
Pelz, Paul J., 89. 
Pension Office, 6, 50, 56. 
Pennsylvania Avenue, 14, 17, tiS, 17, 

18, 73, 88, 92, 100, 132, 133. 
Pennsylvania Kailroad Station, 7, 17, 

92. 
Philadelphia, 16. 
Pierce, Franklin, 26, 93. 
Pinckney, Charles, 17. 
Polk, James K., 24. 
Post Office Building, 6, 17, 49, 50, 54, 

58, 92, 93. 
Potomac, 12, 13, 14, 19, 116, 126, 132. 
Prince Henry of Prussia, 11, 75. 



Kandolph, Edmund, 112. 

John, 17. 
Randall, Samuel J., 77. 
Rathbone, Major, 52. 
Republican Party, Formation of, 26. 
Reed, Thomas B., 77. 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 10, 11, ai, 30, 
60, 72, 75. 106, 116, 131. 

Mrs., !*3, 114. 
Root, Secretary, 11, 75. 



Saint John's Church, 4, ii3, 45, 116. 
Saint Paul's Church, 6, 60, 
Santo-Thyrso, Viscount, 131. 
Schley, Rear-Admiral, 544, 120. 
Scott Circle, 34, 153. 
Scott, General, 22, 
Statue of, 153. 



176 



INDEX 



Sedgwick, Theodore, 17. 

Semple, Mrs. Letitia Tyler, 153. 

Senate Chamber, 1 54, 79. 

Seward, William H., 25, 51, 53. 

Shepherd, Alexander R., 30, 31, 32. 

Sherman, John, 94. 

Sigabee, Captain, 24, 120. 

Smithson, John, 60. 

Smithsonian Institute, 7, 12, 60, 61. 

Soldiers' Home, 35, 13, 158. 

South Carolina Convention, 22. 

Speed, Joshua F., 159. 

Stanley, Edward, 162. 

Stanton, Edwin M., 27, 28, 53. 

State, War and Navy Building, 4, 23, 
24, 25, 12, 13, 16, 27, 31, 37, 40, 
44, 116, 120, 121, 126,132. 

Statue of Freedom, 8, 69. 

Stereographs, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 34. 

Stephens, Alexander H., 25, 

Story, Joseph, 19. 

Stuart, David, 15. 

Sumner, Charles, 25. 

Sumter, Thomas, 17. 

Supreme Court Room, 13, 83. 



Taney, Chief Justice, 74. 

Taylor, Zackary, 24, 99, 108. 

Texas, Annexation of, 24. • 

Thomas Circle, 150. 

Thornton, William, 67. 

Toombs, Robert, 25. 

Tracy, Uriah, 65. 

Treasury Department Building, 4, 17, 
28, 30, 12, 1.3, 16, 20, 20, 31, 37, 
44, 92, 101, 116, 132, 133, 134, 140. 

Treaty of Ghent, 20. 

Trumbull, Lyman, 25. 

Tyler, John, 23, 102. 

u 

United States Fish Commission, 7, 64. 
United States Patent Otnce, 32, 140. 
Upshur, Abel P., 64, 102. 



Van Buren, Martin, 23, 24, 112, 118. 
Van Holieben, Herr, 130. 

w 

Wade, Benjamin, 25, 80, 94. 

Wainwright, Captain, 24, 120. 

Walter, Thomas W., 25, 68. 

War Office, 16, 28. 

Washington, George, 14, 15, 16, 30, 96, 

101, 110, 111, 123, 166. 
Home of, E, 167, 168. 
Tomb of, F, 33, 169, 170. 
Lawrence, 167. 

Monument, 2, 3, 17, 36, 12, 13, 

37, 39, 40, 43, 44, 85, 92, 132, 160. 

National Monument Association, 

41. 
Orphan Asylum, 119. 
Story of, 12 to 33. 
Watson, Rear Admiral, 24, 120. 
Webb, James Watson, 162. 
Webster, Daniel, 21, 25, 36, 78, 118, 145. 
White House, 4, 18,19,20,21,22, 
28, 12, 13, 16, 17, 20, 24, 26, 27, 
30, 37, 40, 44, 96, 97, 98, 100, 101, 

102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 108, 113, 
120, 130, 131, 132. 

Whitney, Eli, 146. 

Wilde, Richard Henry, 78. 

Wilkes, Commodore, 117. 

Willard's Hotel, 17,93. 

Wilmot, David, 25. 

Wilson, Henry, 25. 

Winder, William H., 20. 

Wiudom, Secretary of the Treasury, 

112. 
Winthrop, Robert C, 42. 
Wirt, William, 64. 
Wise, Henry A., 162. 



Zoological Park, 12. 



THE STEREOSCOPE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

"It is as absurd to study history or geography without 
adequate first-hand experience of seeing places, things and people, 
with the life-like realism of the stereoscope, as to study natural 
sciences without a laboratory. Sense experience should be the 
foundation stone of mind building." — Dr. Winship, Editor of 
The Journal of Education. 

" The most important step made to aid in the use of photo- 
graphic illustration is the patent-map system which goes with 
each collection of the Underwood stereographs. The stereographs 
are numbered, and on the accompanying map the same number 
is placed at the point from which the view was taken, and from 
which red lines are drawn enclosing the space included in the 
view. Thus it is with every view. Carefully studying the map 
and facing in the direction indicated by the map, we go over the 
whole land, and see it just as if we were travelling in the land 
itself."— F. N. Peloubet, D.D., Editor "Select Notes" on the 
S. S. Lessons. 

" In late years there has been perfected something that, in my 
judgment, goes ahead of ordinary pictures, and quenches the 
mind's thirst for the concrete almost as completely as the very 
object before the bodily sight. I refer to the stereograph. The 
art of illustration, as we all know, has been marvellously improved 
in recent years. Our commonest school-books to-day have 
process illustrations that for accuracy, delicacy, and beauty are 
greatly superior to the best of sixty years since. Our ten-cent 
magazines are familiar miracles of picture-books. Certainly, the 
human mind has been vastly enriched by this cheapening and 
perfecting of processes of illustration. But even the best pictures 
we still feel to be but pictures ; they do not create the illusions 
of reality, solidity, depth. ' The best in this kind are but 
shadows.' But with the stereoscope the wonder of photography 
is brought to its culmination. Man is a two-eyed animal, and 
the stereoscope with its two lenses that blend two pictures into 
one is like a pair of omnipresent human eyes, at the command of 
every one."— George J. Smith, Ph.D., Board of School Examin- 
ers, New York. 



The TrcLHJel Lesions 

(It turn inated) 
ON THE LIFE OF JESUS 

and 
ON THE OLD TESTAMENT 

DR. WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH, author of "The Boy 
Problem," has worked out by actual experience with his famous 
class, these original, inspiring, Bible Study courses. 

Accompany International, Blakeslee's, Davis', Murray's and all 
Sunday School and personal Bible Study courses, or may be 
used independently. Solve these problems: attendance, order, 
interest in Bible, real religious education. They introduce an 
entirely new method and apparatus which makes an addition of 
permanent and constant value to the equipment for Bible Study 
classes. 

THE PLAN OF THESE TRAVEL LESSONS is to teach 
Biblical History while the student is in the very atmosphere of 
the places where that history was enacted. 
GOV. JOHN L. BATES, Mass.: 

"So realistic and natural is the scene made that one feels as if 
he is beholding the actual scenery ; he obtains the inspiration 
that actual sight gives." 
QEO. A. GORDON, D.D.: 

"After looking over your stereographs of Palestine one feels 
as if he had looked upon natural scenery itself." 
O. E. BROWN, D.D.: 

"The use of the hand-books and maps prepares one to look 
upon the scenes with a perfectly definite sense of location, and 
they do actually produce the realization of having seen the actual 
locality and not merely a picture of it." 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES : 

" Dr. Forbush is proving in his own Sunday School that it is 
possible to get a class of twenty-five healthy, restless, American 
boys as much interested in studying the life of Christ as they are 
in football scores." 
MR. EDWIN F. SEE, Gen. Sec'y. Brooklyn Y. M. C. A.: 

"I have examined with great care and used in class work 
stereoscopes and stereographs suggested for the use of Bible 
courses by Dr. Forbush through Underwood & Underwood. It 
gives what is very much needed, reality to the persons and scenes 
of the Bible." 

Send for Dr. Forbush's free descriptive circular of either or 
both of these courses to UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, Bible 
Study Dept., 5th Ave. & 19th St., New York City. 



MEN WHO HAVE MADE HISTORY 

Underwood & Underwood are making opportunities for the 
public to see not only great sights and famous places, but also 
great men just as they live and act in their daily affairs. Among 
such are: 

PRESIDENT McKINLEY (on more than sixty important 
occasions, e. g., taking the oath of office; in council with 
his cabinet, etc.). 

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT (on more than one hundred 
occasions, including camp-life with the Rough Riders 
and the delivery of addresses in twenty-six different States). 

JUDGE ALTON B. PARKER. 

ADMIRAL DEWEY. 

THOMAS C. PLATT. 

HENRY CABOT LODGE. 

WILLIAM J. BRYAN. 

GEORGE F. HOAR. 

And many other American leaders of thought and action. 

Among the famous men, not Americans, who can be seen 
through stereographs are: 

H. M. EDWARD VII. (at Buckingham Palace, at Balmoral 
Castle, etc.). 

LORD ROBERTS (at various places in South Africa and in 
England). 

LORD KITCHENER (at various places in South Africa and 
in England). 

Mr. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN (in London). 

H. M. NICHOLAS II. of Russia (at St. Petersburg and 
Krasnoe Selo). 

H. M. WILHELM II. of Germany (at St. Petersburg). 

HIS HOLINESS POPE PIUS X. (blessing pilgrims, 
preaching to the people, etc.). 

LI HUNG CHANG (in his Yaraen at Tientsin). 

MARQUIS ITO of Japan (at Tokyo). 

Correspondence is invited. 



UNDERWOOD STEREOSCOPIC TOURS 

The Underwood Stereoscopic Tours are put up in neat Volume 
Cases, or Underwood Extension Cabinets, and the stereographed 
places are arranged in the order in which a tourist might visit the 
actual scenes. 

Note that these are all Original Stereographs, not copies. 

Our improved Aluminum-Mahogany Stereoscope sells for 90 cts. 
This is not included in the prices given below. A higher priced 
stereoscope can be furnished if desired. 

CHINA TOUR. — Giving 100 standpoints, with guide book, 
358 pages, in cloth, by James Ricalton, eight patent 

maps and case $17.75 

Boxer Uprising: Tour— Cheefoo, Taku, Tientsin— (a 
part of the China Tour) — Giving 26 standpoints, with 

guide book, three patent maps and case 4.50 

Hongkong and Canton Tour (a part of the China 
Tour) — Giving 15 standpoints with guide book, three 

patent maps and case 2.70 

Pekin Tour (a part of the China Tour)— Giving 32 stand- 
points, with guide book, two patent maps and case. . . . 5.40 

EGYPT TOUR.— Giving 100 standpoints, with guidebook, 

62 pages, in cloth, and case 17.00 

GRAND CANYON OF ARIZONA TOUR.— Giving 18 

standpoints, with guide book, two patent maps and case 3.15 

ITALY TOUR. — Giving 100 standpoints, with guide book, 
602 pages, in cloth, by D. J. Ellison, D.D., ten patent 

maps, and case 18.00 

Rome Tour (a part of the Italy Tour) — Giving 46 stand- 
points, with guide book, 310 pages, in cloth, by D. J. 
Ellison, D.D., five patent maps and case 8.60 

NIAGARA FALLS TOUR.-Giving 18 standpoints, with 

guide book, two patent maps, and case 3.10 

PALESTINE TOUR.-Giving 100 standpoints, with guide 
book, 195 pages, in cloth, by Jesse L. Hurlbut, D.D., 

seven patent maps and case 17.60 

Jerusalem Tour (a part of the Palestine Tour)— Giving 

27 standpoints, with guide book, patent map and case.. 4.60 

PARIS EXPOSITION TOUR.-Giving 60 standpoints, 

with map, brief explanatory comments, and case 10.00 

RUSSIA TOUR.-Giving 100 standpoints, with guide 
book, 216 pages, in cloth, by M. S. Emery, ten patent 

maps and case 17.75 

Moscow Tour (a part of the Russia Tour)— Giving 27 
standpoints, with guide book, three patent maps and 

case 4.60 

St. Petersburg Tour (a pnrt of the Russian Tour) — 
Giving 39 standpoints, with guide book, five patent 
maps and case 6.60 



ST. PIERRE AND MT. PELEE TOUR.— Giving 18 
standpoints, with guide book, by George Kennan, 

patent maps and case $3. 15 

SWITZERLAND TOUR.— Giving 100 standpoints, with 
guide book, 274 pages, in cloth, by M. S. Emery, eleven 
patent maps and case 17.75 

Bernese Alps (a part of the Switzerland Tour) — Giving 
27 standpoints, with guide book, three patent maps 
and case 4.60 

Engadine Tour (a part of the Switzerland Tour)— Giving 
8 standpoints, with guide book, four patent maps and 
case 1.50 

Lake Lucerne Tour (a part of the Switzerland Tour)— 
Giving 11 standpoints, with guide book, three patent 
maps and case 2.05 

Mont Blanc Tour (a part of the Switzerland Tour)— 
Giving 23 standpoints, with guide book, two patent 
maps and case 3.95 

Zermatt Tour (a part of the Switzerland Tour)— Giving 
15 standpoints, with guide book, two patent maps and 
case 2.70 

TRIP AROUND THE WORLD TOUR.— Giving 72 stand- 
points, with explanatory notes on backs of stereographs, 
guide book, 56 pages, map and case 13.25 

UNITED STATES TOUR.— Giving 100 standpoints, with 
explanatory notes on backs of stereographs, guide book, 
H pages, four patent maps and case 17.00 

WASHINGTON TOUR.— Giving 36 standpoints and 6 
standpoints in environs, with guide book, 178 pages, in 
cloth, by Rufus Rockwell Wilson, four patent maps 
and case 8.00 

YOSEMITE VALLEY TOUR.— Giving 24 standpoints, 
with guide book by Chas. Q. Turner, patent map and 
case 4.10 

PILGRIMAGE TO SEE THE HOLY FATHER TOUR. 

— Giving 26 standpoints, with explanatory notes on 
back of stereographs, guide book, patent map and case 4.45 

PRESIDENT Mckinley tour No. 5— Giving 60 
standpoints, with guide book, 183 pages, in cloth, and 
leatherette case 10.50 

PRESIDENT Mckinley tour No. SA— Giving 60 
standpoints, with guide book, 183 pages, in cloth, and 
genuine leather case, velvet lined, inscription in silver. 12.00 

PRESIDENT McKINLEY TOUR No. 4— Giving 48 
standpoints, with guide book, 183 pages, in cloth, and 
case 8.50 

PRESIDENT McKINLEY TOUR No. 2— Giving 24 

standpoints, with case 4.00 

PRESIDENT McKINLEY TOUR No. 1— Giving 12 

standpoints, with case 2.10 

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT TOUR.— Giving 36 stand- 
points, with case 6.00 



•• The Travel or Illuminated Lessons on the Life of 
Jesus." — Giving 36 standpoints, with a complete hand- 
book, 204 pages in cloth, by William Byron Forbush, 
Ph.D., three patent maps and case $6.25 

••Travel Lessons on the Old Testament." — Divided 
into four courses, giving 51 standpoints in all. A 
complete handbook by Dr. Forbush is now in the hands 
of the printers as this goes to press. It will be ready 
for use after August 15th, 1904. The book follows the 
same methods as the course on the Life of Jesus. It is 
complete in itself, and is also designed for use with all 
the leading Bible Study Courses. Dr. Forbush's free 
descriptive circular on either the Travel Lessons on 
the Life of Jesus or the Old Testament will be sent on 
application. 

The following "Tours" are not, as yet, provided with special 
maps and guide books, but the full, descriptive titles given to 
identify each outlook will be found of great practical assistance 
in studying the countries in question: 
AUSTRIA TOUR.— Giving 84 standpoints, with case. . . .$14.00 

BRITISH BOER WAR TOUR.— Giving 73 standpoints, 

with case 12.00 

CUBA AND PORTO RICO TOUR Giving 100 stand- 
points, with case 16.60 

ENGLAND TOUR Giving 100 standpoints, with case.. . 16.60 

FRANCE TOUR.— Giving 72 standpoints, with case 12.00 

GERMANY TOUR.— Giving 100 standpoints, with case. . 16.60 

GREAT BRITAIN TOUR.— Giving 100 standpoints, with 

case 16.60 

GREECE TOUR.— Giving 100 standpoints, with case 16.60 

INDIA AND CEYLON TOUR.— Giving 100 standpoints, 

with case 16.60 

INDIA AND CEYLON TOUR No. 2.— Giving 200 stand- 
points, with case 33.20 

IRELAND TOUR — Giving 100 standpoints, with case... 16.60 

JAPAN TOUR.— Giving 100 standpoints, with case 16.60 

JAPAN TOUR No. 2.— Giving 200 standpoints, with case 33.20 

MEXICO TOUR.— Giving 100 standpoints, with case 16.60 

PHILIPPINES TOUR.— Giving 100 standpoints, with case 16.60 
PORTUGAL TOUR.— Giving 60 standpoints, with case.. 10.00 

SCANDINAVIA TOUR.— Giving 100 standpoints, with 

case 16.60 

SPAIN TOUR.— Giving 100 standpoints, with case 16.60 

PRINCE HENRY TOUR.— Giving 24 standpoints, with 

case ... 4.00 

•• SPANISH BULL FIGHT."— Giving 12 stereographs. . 2.00 



Other interesting and instructive tours can be made up from 
the large collection of original stereographs always in slock, or 
from new stereographs which are constantly being added. 

We advise our customers to purchase complete tours on the 
countries they may be interested in. One hundred stereographed 
places of one country will generally give much better satisfaction 
than the same number scattered over several countries. Many of 
our patrons are placing all of our educational tours in their 
homes alongside of the standard works on those countries. Schools 
and public libraries are turning more and more to the stereoscope 
to put their students and readers in touch with the actual places 
of which they are studying. The United States Government con- 
sidered them so valuable that all educational tours published to 
date, with the new Underwood Extension Cabinet, were purchased 
for the United States Military Academy at West Point. 

When two or more of the " 100" tours are wanted, we recom- 
mend the "Underwood Extension Cabinet." It can be "built 
up" from time to time as desired, holding from 200 to 3,000 
stereographed places, or more. 

UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, 
Fifth Avenue and jpth Street, NEW YORK. 

LONDON, ENGLAND. 
BOMBAY, INDIA. 
TORONTO, CANADA. 
OTTAWA, KANSAS. 
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 



AUG 26 1904 



